Invisible Broken Hearts
by Sigmu
Summary: Nightmares and mental stress plague Raven to the point of illness thus forcing the Good King's hand, he takes Raven out of school for her own wellbeing and sets his sights on finishing what his daughter started, by politically taking down Snow White. Years later will there be any hope for Apple and Raven's friendship... or even something more? Warning; YURI!
1. Chapter 1

A/n: I've been a little stressed and sickly lately and have been having some computer issues so I wrote an angst to hurt/comfort to happy ending story to help me get back on track with myself. It helped me a lot!

So a weird thought hit me while I was attending an anti-harassment seminar, and then it hit me again while I was watching a detective show with lots of legal babble written in the script about schools and codes of conduct and safety, and then it hit me one last time; in the real world, or if it wasn't so much a children's show as a teenager's show, would the parents of the kids who go to Ever After… really _be okay_ with a lot of the things that happen over there?

I asked my neighbor who has kids what she thought about all of the trouble the favorite characters got up to and what she would have done if her kids were attending that school.

She said that she understood that it was a kids show and that she wasn't supposed to take it so seriously (because it's a show for little kids, not something that is meant to be looked at too closely by the _intended_ audience) but if her kid was going to that school she'd have hung the Headmaster by his ankles off of the balcony because… well to be perfectly honest he's not exactly running a very _physically_ safe or a very safe _feeling_ school. And I agree with her, even though I like it when they have to fight off danger because otherwise I would get way too bored with the whole show and just not watch it or write about it really (because just a show that is strictly about a bunch or rich kids bickering to each other over whether or not they are either red or purple with nothing else interesting happening would be sooo dull), even though as far as violence goes in regards to kids shows that _I've_ grown up with, it's beyond tame.

Although I do not approve of the utter lack of protection a lot of the characters have to deal with in regards to bullying (I mean running away screaming or just treating the villain kids badly on principle? Seriously? Not very fair of the fairest of them all) and while I do like how conflicted Apple's character is, it makes for an interesting development to watch her struggle with her learned ideals versus real people with real feelings, the fact that the writers aren't touching on the issue that she is being pretty dang mean to all the Rebels, Raven especially, and is like, _untouchable_ despite it all is pretty frustrating. I'd like to see an episode where she either spends some time in some sort of reverse alternate world where _she_ is the designated villain with a crazy psycho mother or spend a day inside of Raven's memories, or even her body (can you imagine Apple opening Raven's mouth to say that she's trapped in Raven's body and can somebody please help her, only for everyone in the room to up and scream and runaway every single time she so much as moves? Hilarious, and very eye-opening).

But the point is that I had a stray thought that led to me wondering whether or not Raven's dad has been sort of begging Raven to come back home to be homeschooled because my headcannon is of him being all like; _"Oh my darling baby girl your roommate up and lost her mind and let your mother out of her cage? Is this Apple girl suicidal? And what is with this Headmaster fellow? Trying to manipulate a little girl into signing something strange and following her around and overall being both very creepy and a bully to a minor? And what is this I hear about a dragon from the next county getting loose and you almost getting burned to a crisp? Pplz come home! Daddy loves you and respects you, but seriously; come home!"_ And so on and so forth in every call home.

But then I started to wonder what the plan would be if Raven did decide to be homeschooled for various reasons because obviously everybody at school is so focused on what the kids are doing that the attention to what the parents have been doing all this time has been left to the wayside, people would freak out over a whole new facet of the Rebel versus Royal thing among the adults being brought to light and there would be lots of unexpected visitors to the King realm trying to take Raven back so that things would go back to blissful ignorance… or something like that.

And it would give me a bit more satisfaction to see that not everything between Raven and Apple became magically all better after Apple had plainly screwed things up in Dragon Games, I'm still a big Rapple fan but obviously some issues do have to be worked out, whether it's all for platonic friendship or something more (though in this fic it will definitely be more, obviously). I mean being constantly stabbed in the back by your roommate and self-proclaimed "best friend" (cough-secret love interest-cough) while also being acutely aware that you can't grow to completely hate said roommate because she also has some major issues to deal with in regards to her mother, pressures from her entire kingdom needing her to be perfect, and perhaps even some form of untreated psychosis going on has got to dole out way more mental crushing blows for Raven than what is glossed over in the show.

Seriously all the crap Raven and some of the other characters have had to deal with is just ridiculous.

So anyway that was the stray thought I had and that is why I did this fic, I hope that some of you will enjoy!

XXX

Of all the ways that their friendship could have ended, Apple later reflected, she had always expected it to involve some sort of epic fight or even Raven finally turning evil and fulfilling her role in Apple's fairytale, at the very least Apple had expected there to be a point where she'd see it coming.

So she first planned for the fairytale part of it, came up with dozens of ideas ranging from keeping Raven close forever after or preparing herself to be properly heartbroken and betrayed, like a pretty damsel and not an ugly crier, should Raven follow her mother's well-bred hatred of Snow White and turn away from Apple's well-rehearsed kindness and charity should Raven one day become the Evil Queen and poison Apple and thus suffer the consequences for being born a villain.

She never expected it to come out of nowhere, for it to be so silent, for Raven to keep secrets from her and softly let go of everything. The school, almost all her friends, Apple's story…

Apple never expected for Raven to leave her so kindly or so tenderly, protecting Apple's feelings until it was all too late to stop.

XXX

It's a cycle on repeat.

She is hurt by the lack of preplanned certainty for the future, she tries to force it all back into something resembling order, finds that it either doesn't fit and never has fit into the mold that she had always been taught it had always been or people get hurt and she is forced to back off, she feels bad for hurting others and for hurting Raven and swears to stop, swears to let others and to let Raven have their freedom, but then she is reminded of all the pretty promises and lies whispering words of certain stability, pre-coordinated victory from a false battle, and of the fact that she does not know any other path aside from the one laid like a red carpet at her feet, does not want to bother with learning to walk through the stone and dirt path through the pretty meadows and wooded areas that are all abloom with a real life to live and explore… not even with Raven by her side, because Raven for all of her faults and sins and regrets would always protect Apple, no matter what happened between them Raven would always give her all to ensure that Apple found a way to be happy-

Except for the fairytale, Raven would stand beside her princess through anything… save for having to live that horrible lie.

Apple sees the pretty gold and ivory palace walls the pretty dresses and pretty people all lining up on either side of the carpeted path all chanting her name… her fake, long dead new name and the whispered lies of all the good things that are to surely come-

But Raven sees that the pretty people and faces all are trying to conceal daggers behind their backs, the light flitting in through the large windows to the walled-up path cast shadows that are prison bars, the gilded gold plated metal set to keep them both in, able to watch the real world going on outside but unable to escape themselves, there is a horrible sickly sweat irony tang in the air and with an alarming squelch reaching her ears she looks down at the place where Apple has taken a step forward upon the red carpet and with horror Raven sees the blood drenching the fibers staining the bottoms and sides of Apple's white silk shoes.

Raven yanks her feet out of her own shoes and jumps just beyond the blood-soaked path, takes Apples hand and tries to drag Apple back to safety because something is wrong here but Apple struggles, whines and cries big fat tears and accuses Raven of terrible, terrible things and finally… when the blonde girl realizes that tactic won't work to convince Raven to join her on the sodden carpeted path, she takes a tiny step towards Raven, and Raven rejoices but before she can start to attempt to coax Apple to her side, to safety, Apple takes two tiny steps back onto the bloodied rug.

It cycles over and over again in a never-ending loop, of tears and accusations and tiny steps forward but two or three tiny steps back until Raven realizes with dawning distress that _Apple_ is the one coaxing _her_ onto the blood-soaked path and Raven is stretched out to the point to where she is in danger of _falling onto it_ if Apple were to give a good sharp tug.

Raven Looks up at Apple and really, truly looks at her this time, demands that Apple look around her, just look around, just once, Raven pointing at the evidence at the floor at the nervous pretty people not even bothering to hide the daggers at this point, at the freaking _bars_ on the windows, _and for Ancestor's sake would she just look at the floor and her shoes_!

Raven watches as Apple looks around, obviously disturbed and worried herself, showing her distress for the first time ever at their surroundings…

But because Raven is watching her carefully now, Raven notices that Apple is distressed but not surprised, that Apple is pointedly not looking ahead to the end of the hall.

Apple does not look so Raven does.

Two women stand on the other side, one wearing a white dress that has been soaked through with crimson, blood stained and steadily rising as the silk soaks up what is spilt on the floor, she is holding up a kneeling woman dressed in black by a chain attached to a metal collar around her neck.

There is someone with a dagger slicing carefully and lightly, just enough to bleed but not enough to kill at Snow White's bared back, the woman looks oddly euphoric at the pain being given to her, it's as if she almost likes it for some reason that just doesn't make sense to Raven, the pretty person mutilating the queen meekly stopping when Raven gives and outraged shout.

But Snow White is transfixed by the woman she is holding hostage, a woman who is wearing cooling fire-hot metal shoes around her burnt feet, black dress all in shreds and burnt tatters, a dagger being slowly twisted further and further into her back by another pretty person who does not stop when looked or shouted at and-

Raven looks at her mother who is looking confused and pained back at Raven, all hurt and surprised and very, very confused as another pretty person reaches out to slice the last thread holding her black dress up, the ruined cloth falling away exposing her mother in a way that Raven never conceived possible! Blood from previously hidden wounds pouring out of her exposed pale skin and down onto the-

Raven sharply looks at Apple who in turn scuffs the ground guiltily, getting more blood onto her shoe in the process, not looking at Raven's face at all because-… _because she knew_. She knew what was at the end of this path. She knew exactly what she was about to lead Raven into and yet-

"I want to be just like my mom, I want you to be just like your mom, have the same relationship that they do, best frienamies forever, we don't have to be just like them, but I want to follow their exact footsteps, I want to become them, I want you to become like your mom-"

Raven looks back to her mother as Apple rambles in circles, sees her mother look back helplessly, biting her lip in defeated desperation before taking a deep breath and pulling on the chain that Snow White is holding her by, she falls backwards with Snow White's weight on top of her forcing the blade slowly twisting into her back to-

"I want to become just like our parents, I want you to be just like your mom." Apple says and Raven sees the concealed dagger being slowly drawn out from the folds of her skirt and into view from the princess's free hand.

Raven cries out as she yanks and twists her hand free from Apple's, crying out in pain as the princess's nails draw blood but she breaks free nonetheless, falling back onto the stone and dirt path outside as Apple falls into the bloodied carpet on her end.

A barred golden gate slams between them, separating them.

"Mom! Mama!" Raven howls leaping to her feet and throwing herself at the glittering gold bars locking the people inside the castle walls. Snow White looks distressed now as she shakes the paling limp form of Raven's mother by the neck a few times before appearing to grow angry and doing her utmost to shove the cooling body to the side like the corpse was just a heap of rubbish.

"Broken." Snow White spits with a pout, turning her glimmering blue eyes towards Raven as the girl sobs outright at the limp, naked form of her mother's cold body surrounded by a squelching puddle of wet carpet and blood.

"Apple-seed grab the new toy before it has a chance to run off." The queen orders in a bored harsh tone, pointing a dripping finger at Raven, a finger drenched in the red force Raven's mother's life and all that the Evil Queen could have been if she had not stayed so close to where Snow White could reach her.

Raven backs away from the golden cage in fear, her nose twitching as the stench of blood and death grows more and more pungent until it invades Raven's senses completely.

Apple pops up into view, her once pristine white dress stained with red, her perfect hair matted down and wet with red, her face splattered with drops of red, her Apple-red painted lips smearing with something darker and far more vile when Apple bites her sodden glove finger in guilt and worry as she watches Raven fall once again onto her backside in shock and attempt to scuttle farther away on her hands, backwards down the clean dirt and stone path and gulp down air that is not tinged in vile blood.

"But she looks scared." Apple tells the queen meekly.

"Well force her not to be, break her into your toy, she'll be a far better one than mine was if you do it right! You want to be a good girl don't you? You want to become me right? She is but a tool and toy to get what you want! You'll never be like me, or a proper good little girl without her there to use!" Snow White snaps.

"Apple please don't-" Raven begs.

"You want to become me don't you? Or are you just going to be an ungrateful brat about all of this?" Snow White snarls.

"I want… to be a good girl…" Apple still looks conflicted.

"Apple no!" Raven's voice is high and pleading through her tears.

"You want to become me don't you?"

"Apple, Apple please! No, no, no, no!

"I… I want…?"

" _We_ want Apple! This is what _we_ want! This is what you, and I, _we_ as in Snow White, want!"

"Apple please!" Raven begs.

"I- we want this…" Apple bends down to fish out her blood soaked dagger.

"No!" Raven screams, scrambling to get to her feet and began to trip over herself a few times in her attempt to get away.

"I-… but she loves me… can I really break someone- something that loves me so much?" Apple looks uncertain.

"Break her!" Snow White roars.

"I'm sorry Raven." Apple sighs, lifting her dripping arm. "Maybe if you had loved me less and left it wouldn't have had to end this way…" The princess throws the dagger at Raven's back.

Raven ducks down flat onto the stone and dirt path as the sharp metal whistles above.

XXX

Raven is howling and confused when she tumbles out of bed, bonks the side of her face onto the bedside table (an overrated gothic style thing that Apple keeps placing that infernal silver skull candleholder on) and greets the black and purple bird skull rug (That Raven secretly loathed but wasn't about to tell Apple this since the blonde was the one who had spent good money on the horrid thing) with her face.

Her nose aches and immediately Raven can smell blood, for a horrible instant Raven's petrified mind fears that the nightmare is not over so when Apple kneels down in alarm and takes hold of Raven's shoulders in an attempt to settle the struggling witch down Raven cries out and struggles even more at the touch of someone strange in the dim room.

All Raven can comprehend in the split second she looks up to see who her attacker was, is the blood filling her nose and Apple, all darkened in the harsh minimal lighting of Apple's bedside lamp, and there, so very there and up close and the shiny grinning skull candleholder leering at Raven from behind Apple's shoulder-

Raven feels the horror rip harshly out of her throat with enough force to make her vocal cords feel raw before darkness swallows up her vision and her mind goes silent.

The incident leaves Apple startled and with a limp, completely fainted and out cold witch in her arms when the incessant knocking and alarmed voices at the dorm's front door decided to cut out the middle-man and somebody picked the lock open, flooding the room with what almost felt like to Apple (and the gawking onlookers) like over half of the girl's dorm.

XXX

"This is getting ridiculous." Briar intones flatly.

Raven whines quietly in embarrassed agreement as she listens in on the conversation going on the other side of the blue school infirmary's section curtain.

"And painful." Blondie pipes up, Raven can see said girl's silhouette hold up something. "Her charts say that she's gone and given herself a broken nose and a concussion!"

"Blondie, maybe you shouldn't wave that around where the healers can see it, you don't want them finding out that you swiped it." Ashlynn sighed.

"Borrowed it." Blondie corrects. "And Briar is right, this is like what? The fifth night this month that she's woken up over half the dorm and that's not counting all of the nightmares that she's had in the past few weeks! Something is definitely bothering her!"

"I've tried talking to her about it but she refuses to say a word." Apple sighs in dismay. "Honestly this just isn't right! Villains are supposed to like nightmares not-"

Raven's mind is suddenly invaded by images of a crimson stained Apple lifting up a dagger and taking aim-

The scent of blood fills her nose.

Raven makes it to the trashcan just in time to expel her stomach's contents. People rush into her little sectioned off corner of the school's infirmary and the head healer is barking out orders for everyone to leave as the woman kindly holds back Raven's hair.

XXX

Maddie knows, Raven has told her what was going on ever since the first nightmare because she is Raven's best and most important friend despite Apple's insistence that Apple is in actuality-

No wait… that sounded wrong? Apple is Raven's… roommate, Raven would _like_ to be friends with Apple and Apple says that they are _best friends_ but there is definitely something… _off_ about that statement.

"You're heart does long for her." Maddie points out when Raven speaks her thoughts on the matter. "But that does not prevent you from being friends so much as her insanity does."

"You mean the fact that no matter what we go through together she keeps going back to that state where she is trying to force or trick me into becoming the Evil Queen?" Raven croaks out tiredly because such a thing is obvious by now even without her subconscious all but screaming at her about it every other night.

"She has been starting up again about how you are supposed to act and be correct?" Maddie asks as she pours Raven a tea that is promised to help soothe Raven's sore throat and relieve the ach in the witch's bandaged nose and the bruised side of her face without the woozy and nauseous feelings brought about by the prescribed pain medication.

"Yes." Raven cracks helplessly, the spoken word sounding horribly like a death knell to the witch's ears the moment it leaves her lips. Finality to one story and the beginning of another if the tender-yet-very determined and unusual serious look in Maddie's eyes has anything to say about it.

"Can you handle another go around the not-so-merry-go-spin like that of the Dragon Games?" The Hatter asks bluntly and thankfully without pity, Raven can't handle any more pity right now. "Of being accused of being evil by smiling lips, of being scolded for being kind and having more than one friend, of being ordered how to dress how to act, of being betrayed and then being oh so very surprised when things after apology do not go back to being the exact same, of-?"

"No okay? I can't!" Raven finally explodes, hiding her face away in her hands, shame and sorrow creeping into her chest.

They are both silent for several moments, Maddie calmly drinking tea and Raven staring into hers as if the liquid held the answers to everything and nothing all at once.

"Does your father still offer to rescue you away from school and into a new and better life?" Maddie begins after the silence stretches just enough for Raven to gather her thoughts.

"I have a life here Maddie." Raven coughs through a tickle in her voice.

"Yes but is this life here making you happy? That is the question you must ask yourself Raven, because there is a difference between fighting through a bad situation you can't get out of and actually going out to forge your own destiny with a brighter, happier future." Maddie points out. "I'm not speaking words of easy travels, however I am voicing concern for a friend and a sister who really could do much better. Think back Raven, how many times have people stood behind you when you looked like you were winning the war only to all step back when something went wrong? How often have you had to stand alone in front of the horde when so many of you're so called "best friends" in the royal camp were there and fully capable to defend you? How many of these so called Royal "best friends" who were not from Wonderland made your Rebel supporters too afraid to stand up for themselves? How many times has something gone wrong and somebody pointed the finger at you even though you were nowhere near the scene of the incident?"

Raven hesitates, thinking back and unable to place any holes into Maddie's reasoning. "Can it really be that simple? To just… go away?"

"I think that it would be brainy to seriously consider it." Maddie sips her tea. "You have already won the battle with getting the rebellion going, now you must consider whether or not winning the war requires you to take yourself, and therefore the physical temptation for repeating the Dragon Games and your mother being set free, out of the picture."

"Because without me being there to be a constant reminder for Apple and all the things that she wants but knows that she can't have unless she adapts by herself… it won't happen again. And since she refuses to adapt by herself, even with me there to help her… it'll happen again. And people might actually get hurt this time." Raven bites her lip.

"And your heart will do much better to not be constantly broken by the one you love the most." Maddie added.

Raven blushes bright pink, trying to look as innocent as possible. "Maddie I have no idea what you're talking about."

Maddie opened one eye, brow raised, and teacup at her lips. "Your mind might not, but your heart does."

Raven looks down at the tablecloth, completely shamefaced.

"Just think about it." Maddie requests.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been obvious from the very beginning that it was more than just a simple nightmare, that it had all started not long after Apple had set the Evil Queen free and that despite claiming that Raven had forgiven Apple the other girl was keeping her distance.

But Apple was still ashamed by what she had done and after Raven had verbally forgiven her so readily Apple just wanted to sweep the whole situation under the rug and forget that her betrayal to her best friend never happened, that it was all the Evil Queen's fault and that as a fair maiden succumbing to a villain it really technically wasn't her fault at all! She was the wronged party all along!

Apple had been so busy attempting to convince herself of her own lies that the real wronged party, the only person that ever counted, slipped right out of Apple's reach before she could even see it.

XXX

Raven thinks about it.

Even though she really doesn't want to.

"I brought you some lavender in a bag, Cupid says that it'll help you sleep." Dexter kindly offers Raven at lunch.

Raven smiles as much as her bruised face and sore nose will allow. "Thank you, that is really sweet of-"

"What's the bright idea with you waking everybody up in the middle of the night Raven." Duchess sneers, appearing out of nowhere. "Evil Queens are supposed to cackle not shriek."

Raven blinks, looking around her to find that Dexter had mysteriously disappeared from her side. She thinks she spies him out of the corner of her eye, sprinting out of the line of fire but staying just close enough to listen in, just close enough to see when it is safe to go back.

 _And where was he all throughout the time that my mother had broken free and when I needed a friendly face the most?_ Her thoughts demanded. _Why is he only ever really around when things are going good and it looks like that I am winning?_

Duchess's hands slammed down onto the table. "Well?" She demands, drawing the attention of most of the room.

"I'm not evil." Raven mumbled looking around her in confusion as some of her known Rebel associates at the next table make to stand up to apparently help, only for Apple to race from her other side to them, holding her arms out to stop them, ordering them in a voice that Raven could barely make out to not start a fight and to just let Raven handle it.

"Yeah right, tell that to my missing sleep, I've got bags under my eyes because of you." Duchess sneered again, waving her hand in order to try to get Raven to look at her and not at how Apple has just given her a thumb's up and mouthed; " _Use your magic!_ " at Raven who is in turn giving Apple what she hopes is a universal, " _what are you doing? I am too tired to handle this alone!_ " gesture. But either Apple doesn't understand what Raven is saying, or she is pointedly ignoring Raven.

"I'm working on it." Raven assured distractedly, Cupid and Briar appear to know what she is saying and they do stand up but then Apple is right there, and Raven can hear the blonde try to explain her intervention away as an attempt to halt yet another Royal versus Rebel conflict started all because of Raven refusing to be evil and-

"What is she going on about?" Duchess whispers just loud enough for Raven to hear as she discretely points to Apple, apparently Duchess could read what Raven was trying to silently say too as well as overhear Apple's words.

Raven's face when she looks up at Duchess must be something because the other girl visibly winces and there is pity layered thick in her expression and in her voice when she whispers again just loud enough for only Raven to hear. "Sorry, I'm just tired and you always sound like you're being murdered so I can't roll over and go back to sleep."

Raven closes her eyes and breathes in deep. Summoning up her best fake smile, the one she used to use at parties and in the face of kingdom royals at fancy balls whenever the adults used to ask her about her mom.

Her face really hurt, but it would be worth it if she could just… _get out_!

"I have proposed the option of magically soundproofing the dorm but I am afraid that my suggestion was turned down by the owner for it appeared to them to be a great inconvenience for just a few silly night-terrors, might I interest you in some charmed earmuffs? There is a great place down in the village that, or so I have been duly and repeatedly informed, has been making quite the mint off of me and my inconvenient lack of control over my subconscious." Raven did her best not to wince at the sound of her voice; several tones higher and far too chipper than to what even she was used to.

"I'm pretty sure that the RA will understand if you push it." Duchess is leaning towards the witch in concern. "Are you feeling alright? You're voice sounds funny."

 _That's because my supposed boyfriend just abandoned me, and the girl that I am hopelessly but secretly in love with is trying to turn me evil by throwing me to your mercy, and my face really hurts right now, and I am trying with all my might not to break down crying all by myself in front of a lunchroom full of people that either won't help me when I'm being kicked down or are being prevented from helping me and… oh no, I'm gonna cry if I don't get out of here now!_ Raven managed to grin a little wider.

"I wasn't talking about the RA, don't ask me I just live there." Raven informs sweetly. "Now if you will so kindly excuse me…" She couldn't help glancing at Apple who was sighing in disappointment in that familiar way she tended to do whenever Raven did something kind or non-villain-like out of the corner of her eye.

"…I've lost my appetite!" Raven squeaked, feeling just on the edge of loss of control, so she disappeared in a swirl of purple magic instead of walking calmly out like she had wanted to do, accidentally taking the bench she sat on with her in the process.

Raven was relieved that the south lawn was empty, and that she could turn her back on the school windows so that no one from the inside could see her begin to painfully cry while she staggered towards the tree line.

XXX

Cerise found her five minutes later.

She asked Raven what was going on and if she could do anything to help.

Raven sobbed truthfully that she wasn't certain that _anything_ could help her at this point but ended up telling the hooded girl everything all the same, from the bad dreams to Maddie's proposal, to what happened at lunch.

Cerise listened attentively while Raven sobbed and hiccupped through, letting Raven use her lap as a cushion and stroked the witch's notably crownless hair (her bruised head hurt too much to wear it).

After Raven was finished a long silence settled, Raven almost falling asleep when Cerise finally spoke up.

"You should do it. Go on and be free, us Rebels will be just fine by ourselves. Maddie's right this is not going to end well for you unless you remove yourself from all of this, it's not healthy and it is not safe for you here with Apple, this keeps on getting worse and worse and you are right; she is starting it all this up again, she only gets really strict about how other people act whenever she's stressing out about how you were supposed to be her villain."

"But I love her." Raven dabs gingerly at her clogged nose with a handkerchief. "She'll be afraid if I just go."

Cerise snorts in disgust. "Yeah well being scared into a proper human being might be good for her, seeing as she's turning downright psychotic while you are within her reach. Besides you can do much better with finding someone else to both love and loyally stand beside."

"And what about Dexter?" Raven asks because he _was_ her boyfriend, even though it had only been a very short time and the two of them had only ever really gone out a sparse few times, between school, Apple, and craziness that was living in Ever After they hadn't had much time… that and Cerise seemed to be describing Raven's feelings for Apple almost as if-…

"Like you said, he's only ever really around when you are winning, and he barely knows you, I mean… have you two ever even discussed your past? Your hopes and dreams for the future? …Or even had the chance to tell him that purple is actually your third most favorite color?" Cerise asked.

"No." Raven answered grimly. "I… I probably should reevaluate that relationship… now that you've gone and put it that way…"

"Well good because at the Dragon Games I overheard him talking to the other princes about how he couldn't believe that he had been dating someone who was willing to set fire to that fancy arena. I tried setting him straight of course but… well he was certainly very sorry when the truth came out that you were innocent." Cerise huffed.

"What?" Raven asked her eyes wide.

"Ears. I overheard with perfect clarity." Cerise tapped the side of her hood in explanation. "No mistake, I am very sorry."

"Oh dear gods." Raven bemoaned covering her eyes carefully. "I'm going to have to be the bad guy and break up with him in some big horrid fight aren't I? Oooh I don't think that I can handle this in my condition, all broken up in the face and tired out of my ever-living mind…"

"You could always ask Lizzie to help." Cerise supplied. "She may not be Cupid but she does know her way around break ups and hearts."

"…And why can't I go to Cupid for help?" Raven inquired.

"Well… I suppose since you are going to break up with him… I guess it's alright to tell you that she's madly in love with him and… well half the school kind of knows about her feelings anyway… even without super hearing to overhear her talking to herself about it or super smell to detect those kind of pheromones." Cerise coughed apologetically.

"That's why people have being saying that I'm being super mean by dating him!" Raven realizes with a start. "Oh my… if I had known I would have backed off and helped her! Cupid deserves love far more than I deserve a date with a mere crush! Oh I feel so guilty and Dexter probably is better off without me since we've only been on a few dates and it's not like that's enough for him to fall for me and it was all probably just a bit of curiosity on his end anyway so really those two should probably be together…"

"…You are a good friend Raven. Never change." Cerise sighs over Raven's guilty rambling.

XXX

Raven is still troubled by the past week's events, avoiding both Dexter and Cupid whenever possible and staying over at Maddie and Kitty's dorm for a few nights helps but Apple is a kind-hearted person when she is not stressed about their- about _her_ story, Raven's reoccurring nightmares seem to have put the princess off of her sudden lack of a prince as well as Raven's continued refusal to do anything to help Apple find a new one.

"I mean you could always temporarily poison me, nothing as strong as that apple your mother gave me… just for a few hours so that we can have all the eligible princes and heroes kiss me to see if any of them can wake me up." Apple explains as she gingerly helps hold a small cold packet to Raven's nose to keep down the swelling while Raven lay sprawled out miserably on her bed, just like the healer instructed be done periodically until the bone and cartilage mended itself.

"And what about Darling?" Raven asked feeling far too worn with this subject to pull any of her verbal punches.

Apple hesitated, biting her lip. "What about Darling?" The princess avoided her eye.

"She woke you up." Raven pointed out.

"That was just CPR."

"Which is the kiss of life."

"But she's not a prince!"

Raven regarded Apple carefully. "She is not a _male prince_ you mean, in my culture there are no issues with gender when it comes to titles."

Apple sits back, blinking rapidly in confusion. "What?"

"My culture, from my home, is different than that of Ever After, you were poisoned by my mother whose cultural upbringing is the same as mine. _A female prince_ is just as valid as a male prince." Raven murmured, knowing full well that Apple would not know this and that this was slightly dirty of her to lure Apple into this kind of verbal trap.

But she had to know, if there was any hope for their supposed friendship then Apple would have to know what her title will be once she inherited her father's throne.

She loved Apple… even though she was scared to voice just how much too much, even inside her own head, and Apple would have to know- would find out eventually.

Would Apple accept such a concept? If not then what hope did Apple have for herself? If only a female prince could awaken her from poisoned slumber?

"I… am a prince." Raven confessed carefully to Apple's widening eyes. "I have turned my back upon my mother's title of queen therefore I have the choice to inherit my father's title, throne, and both kingdoms, I am currently the Good Prince, and shall become the Good King if I decide to rule."

Apple had to think about that one for a while.

"But that's just not how things are done in fairytales." Apple chuckled nervously, not looking Raven in the eye. "You'll make a decent queen, don't worry about it."

"I never said that I was worried. I'm quite charmed by the option of becoming the king to be honest." Raven countered muzzily.

"But that's not what is done in fairytales." Apple still sounded nervous.

Raven inhaled deeply, bracing herself for touching upon a subject that had never been brought up before. "In human stories… perhaps, but I am neither human nor am I a fairytale character."

Raven stared unflinching and very stoic into Apple's startled eyes.

Apple swallowed being the first to break eye contact. "But you're a girl." The princess argued weakly.

"Were you under the impression that I was not?" Raven suppressed an inappropriate snicker and-… ow; laughing hurt her face.

"That's not funny Raven, joking like that." Apple frowned.

"I am being completely serious." Raven blinked lazily.

"Then what happens when you get married? There can't be two kings on the throne." Apple snipped almost frostily.

Actually there could but that was a whole other argument.

"Whomever I choose to love and marry, whether they be a he, she, or something else, they would become my queen of course." Raven stated simply, doing her best to act as though voicing her words to Apple didn't terrify her.

Apple's eyes looked like they might drop out of her skull.

"That… that doesn't sound right… are you pulling my leg?" The princess laughed thinly, like she was almost afraid of Raven's answer. "That- that doesn't happen in fairytales!"

Raven merely stoically stared back at Apple, completely and suddenly drained from the conversation.

After sometime Apple got tired of fidgeting under Raven's gaze. "You are joking with me… right?"

 _No_ , Raven thought with a singular strong resonance echoing inside her head. "Is that your final answer?" She said instead.

"What?" Apple blinked.

"That it obviously cannot be possibly so just because it is not a fairytale and it is not of your culture or worldview?" Raven asked, hoping for a last ditch miracle of… well maybe a little bit of acceptance? If not for the prince or the marrying a queen thing then at least that Raven wasn't a fairytale character.

Apple shook her head, not comprehending. "What are you talking about Raven? Of course it is not possible; you're a girl! You're going to become a queen one day and be my-" _Villain_ , is what hangs in the suddenly thick air between them.

"I am tired." Raven declares quickly before Apple can begin censuring herself. "I need to sleep now please… my head really hurts." _As well as my broken heart_ …

Apple hesitates but appears to take it all in at face value (and as an excuse to runaway). "Yeah, I can tell, how's about I call a healer to make a home visit too? You're being pretty loopy at the moment."

Raven is merely silent as she looks, _really looks_ at Apple this time, through weary half-lidded eyes.

Apple fidgets again under the stare before backing away and being a little too loud when she calls a healer to the dorm.

XXX

"You are once again causing quite the disturbance Miss Queen, I don't know what is going on with you on a good day and here you go on in the middle of the night with this? I've had just about enough of your attention grabbing now if you- MISS QUEEN!" The Headmaster snaps. "Are you listening to me?"

In fact Raven didn't have to, Giles was not there so she knew that the headmaster wasn't likely to play fair and she was too busy being preoccupied with how the healer that Apple had called into the dorm yesterday had at first, fallen to the ground laughing hysterically when the princess described with increasing worry about how Raven was babbling about marrying other girls and becoming a king, only to find out that Apple was serious. And Raven was at the very least grateful that this particular healer was both a decent person (for a staff member of a very traditionalist school) for once as well as smart. Insisting that Raven be taken to the infirmary for observation and giving Raven a long but very refreshing speech after Apple had been shooed away about not having to cite what the exact medical reasons are if Raven ever needed to find herself in a private dorm room in the near future.

"Miss Queen!" The Headmaster was shaking Raven's limp shoulder.

"So tired." Raven croaked hoarsely. "The nightmares… sorry, I'll find a way not to be a disturbance."

"Oh and how is that?" The Headmaster crossed his arms sternly.

"I was offered a tent and camping gear by one of the girls." Raven lied sarcastically, not really thinking.

"…You are not camping in the middle of the woods Miss Queen." The Headmaster looked almost pained, and his brow was twitching, golly, his brow only twitched when she was being particularly stubborn, she must be doing a real number on his week if he was this irritated. "I was going to suggest mandatory time with a school therapist."

"But the healers already have me seeing-" Raven started but was cut off.

"Yes well since you keep falling asleep on the couch in her office I think that it is high time that you tried a different school therapist." The Headmaster grouched.

That got Raven to wake up a considerable bit. "I thought that all the school health professionals were under legal obligation of section two, title thirty one a, b, and g." Raven recalled from the school wide seminar that they all had to take the first year.

"What?" The Headmaster blinked in confusion, he always fell asleep during the speeches in the auditorium.

"No non-healthcare professionals are allowed to know a student's confidential health information unless given specific permission by either the student, a parental guardian, law enforcement, or in extreme life or death circumstances by the physician themselves." Raven tried to keep her voice level, but panic was slowly creeping into her tone. "Someone who has equal or more authority than you has to give you permission for you to even know _who_ the healers had assigned me to let alone that I keep falling asleep on her office's couch… I know that neither myself or my father gave you permission and I darn well know that my mother never would even if she still held those kind of parental rights, which she doesn't anymore because she's a criminal!"

The Headmaster shifted his feet, looking distinctly edgy for being caught out.

"Headmaster…?" Raven had wanted to sound angry and furious, because that would have been better, it was something that she could at least handle, but instead her voice came out violated and utterly terrified.

The man flinched, actually looking guilty for once. "Miss White has been very concerned for you, which in turn has made her mother rather concerned and since she is the queen-"

Raven could have sworn that her heart stopped. "I need to get out of here." It was getting very hard to breath in the room so Raven stood up to dart out, her mind filling with visions on daggers and blood and a woman in a red stained white dress holding her mother up by the neck-

"Miss Queen we still need to talk." The Headmaster said sternly as he grabbed the girl's arm, only to yelp in surprise when Raven startled at his touch on her arm and promptly collapsed to the floor with a pathetic little sound escaping her lips.

XXX

"This is getting worse." Raven heard Briar's dry voice and knew that the usual "after-the-freak-out-crew" were all gathered outside of her curtained room. Again. Funny how the blue fabric surrounding the tiny space started to feel like a second home after over a month of sleep depravation and panic attacks leaving her to lie unconscious on the floor or the ground at odd intervals.

Raven sighed she really must be in a sorry state if not even Faybelle or Duchess deemed it appropriate to hassle her over it all at this point, instead showing signs of pity openly in the halls…

Ooh things must be really bad indeed.

"You don't think that the Headmaster did anything to her...?" Blondie asked tentatively.

"No he wouldn't!" Raven could practically hear Apple shake her head. "In fact he's trying to help my mom figure out what is wrong with her. Oh if only she'd just tell me what her nightmares are about!"

"Well the therapists notes that I borrowed from the healer's offices do mention something about Raven admitting that she knows how to fix things herself but she doesn't know if she has the confidence to do so." Blondie hummed over the sound of pages being flipped from side to side.

"Blondie, put that out of sight!" Ashlynn hissed. "You'll get into way more trouble than just swiping a clipboard off of her bed!"

"Borrowed, I borrowed the clipboard, just like I borrowed this." Blondie corrected.

"I said put that away!" Ashlynn hissed again.

"That's it I know how we can help Raven!" Apple clapped to herself excitedly as she usually did when she got super excited. "We just have to awaken a bit of her inherited villainess courage and she'll be able to face whatever is bothering her!"

A beat. "What?" It was Blondie this time.

"Apple… remember the last time you tried to "awaken" Raven's villain side? You know, when you let her mother free and nearly destroyed the whole school in the process?" Briar demands in her most severe sassy tone.

"I don't mean that we try to turn her evil." Apple laughed nervously. "I just mean that we remind Raven that she was born with more courage due to her evil heritage, she might have turned her back on our story for now but she can't escape genetics! Somewhere in there is an Evil Queen who is far too strong and brave to be scared off by a little nightmare."

"What are you going on about _we_ Apple?" Briar demands.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how genetics work Apple." Ashlynn coughed meekly, interrupting.

"Of course it is, I was born to be the fairest and Raven was born to be evil, just because Raven never shows her evil side doesn't mean that it isn't there." Apple states simply. "Come on guys, please help me out? She's getting worse, just yesterday she was practically delirious, talking about how she's a female prince and that she's going to inherit her father's throne as the next Good King and how she was going to marry a girl one day and make her queen! I mean can you seriously tell me that is not a cry for some serious help and intervention?"

The silence was almost deafening this time; Raven rolls over in her cot, trying to pretend that this just wasn't happening.

She was grateful at least that her nose was feeling better and that the bruise on the side of her head was gone, it made the sudden pressure behind her eyes less painful.

"What? Why are you guys all looking at me like that?" Apple demands in confusion.

Raven tries to stifle it but her wet sniffles carry out to the other side of the curtain.

"She's heard us." Briar is the one to hiss this time. "Come on let's leave her alone, I don't think that she'll be happy to see any of us right now."

"Wha- Ashlynn let me go!" Apple's voice fades away as the group leaves.

"We are gonna have a looong talk sister." Briar's voice can barely be heard before the doors to the infirmary opens and shuts closed behind the retreating group.

However Apple was right about one thing, Raven did need to find her courage again, she can't deal with this sitting down and doing nothing any longer.


	3. Chapter 3

Apple had calculated and practiced any comebacks that she might've needed if she and Raven ever had another big fight about destiny again, mentally preparing herself to verbally defend herself against the lowest attacks she could ever imagine Raven coming up with and sternly telling herself that she'd have to be quick on her feet and prepared to duck or run if she ever managed to win one of these days and Raven's evil magic was expelled at Apple, the princess so certain that she'd have to be the one to take extra care the moment that Raven's sleeping villain genetics came roaring to life.

Apple almost makes herself sick remembering those thoughts, that certainty that Raven was by default the cur to fear… when in reality it was Apple who ended up becoming the real monster.

And what was worse was that Apple wasn't the only monster masquerading as a fair maiden in the family.

XXX

"So I ask him the question outright and if he lies this'll turn black?" Raven asks, carefully holding up the white cloth daisy (a real one would not withstand Raven's slipping control over her powers).

"Yes. As long as he's holding the stem and he agrees to speak from his heart." Lizzie nods solemnly, glancing over her shoulder to an unusually quiet Maddie. "Are you certain that you want to do it this way Raven? You already know the answer to your question, so why come to me? Cupid may have a gentler method that might avoid argument."

"We both need closure, and due to my current condition I am unable to prolong this any further, it has to be abrupt and clean, I'm afraid that easing into- or out of in this case- this is just no longer an option for me." Raven sighed.

"So you _are_ going to leave?" Lizzie asks, making Raven startle. "I'm not going to tell." The other girl assured. "I'm just surprised that there is actually something out there that could possibly make you want to leave. I know that Maddie and Kitty know because Maddie is your dearest friend and Kitty looks into everything going on in her territory so… are you willing to tell me what has startled you so badly? Is it about Apple?"

Raven hesitated, regarding Lizzie with a tired sort of respect for figuring out the essence of the issue.

"I have dreams…" Raven licks her lips, gingerly touching her newly healed nose. "I have dreams of Dragon Games, carpeted paths bleeding red, Snow White with her hands around my mother's throat, and of Apple throwing a dagger at my back as I try to run away… sometimes it's other people… but mostly it's Apple or Snow White. I've tried, I really, really have but… I just can't handle it anymore."

The room goes silent for a spell.

"Oh my." Lizzie whispers, if anybody can make sense out of a dream it is a Wonderlandian. "Have you at least tried to talk to Apple about this?"

"Apple is talking this and that about destiny and her need to find a prince and dancing around how Raven must act out her life as if it is a stage." Maddie hums while sipping her tea. "And Snow White has used her authority to dig through Raven's therapist's notes."

"Oh dear…" Lizzie sighs shaking her head. "No wonder you have gone mad."

"I am tired." Raven corrects. "And I've still have a little bit left to sort out before I decide whether or not I should-…" The witch looks away. Because she has suddenly realized with a sinking realization for the very first time that… she is going to leave.

"Perfectly understandable." Lizzie nods and Raven knows that Lizzie knows that she is going to leave, that it was never a question in the first place, how and when it had become so obvious is a mystery that Raven is too exhausted to figure out so she simply turns to go.

"I can off with his head if he tries to hurt you." Lizzie offers. "You should call your father by the way, he's heard about you fainting in the Headmaster's office and he's rather concerned since you won't tell him what's going on with you."

Raven turns back around at the door to Maddie, and Kitty's dorm. "You've spoken to my father?" The witch asks in confusion.

"Well my mother has been… and the Cheshire Cat… and Alice, oh and the Mad Hatter but you already knew about that." Lizzie doesn't meet Raven's eye. "They've got a business arrangement going on you see, mother has grown very fond of him by the way, she thinks that he is both very funny and very charming… aaand since he's been in communication with our parents a lot lately… we've been asked to maybe keep an eye on you- well a closer eye on you than we already were looking at you really- you're father has been so very worried after you after all. So we've taken pity on him."

"Of course." Raven nodded puzzle pieces sliding into place inside her brain, she may have been out of it lately but she was far from completely blind to some things. "Might these dealings have something to do with why you all have been… a bit more self-isolated lately especially in keeping as far away from Apple- as well as some of her mother's closest ally's children- as possible? Because while I've been laid up in bed with nothing to do but my daily thronework so that I don't fall behind in class, and at least _attempting_ to get some decent sleep while _she_ is away from the dorm, she likes to tell me the latest gossip and goings on with her associates… and that is exactly what she has noticed going on with you lot lately. She's been concerned but hasn't looked into it because she's trying to take care of me…" Raven swallows guiltily.

Lizzie winces while Maddie whistles tunelessly with false innocence.

"Has my father gone and done something rash because of me?" Raven sighs, leaning against the closed door. "Because lately he's been threatening to just yank me out of school if I show signs of getting worse and he's also started to muse about looking into my mother's claims about the White family being devious and… well evil."

"Snow White is as devious as dirty snow around the public chopping block." Maddie pointed out sagely and with surprising malice. "She likes her popularity points." She added after a moment's thought.

"Lizzie… Maddie…?" Raven raises a brow.

The two other girls shared glances before Lizzie huffed out a sigh. "…Yes, your father has asked us to help him look into some things… which led to us finding out some things, which then led us to discover some really very shocking things and… it's a good thing that he's started asking questions Raven, it's okay because he's asking the _right kind_ of questions and he's the first brave enough to do something about the answers he's finding."

"Is he getting in the middle of this Rebel and Royal conflict?" Raven demands. "Because if he is that is very much not a good thing. He could get hurt if he got into the crosshairs, he also has the wellbeing of two kingdoms resting heavily on his shoulders as well, it's fine if all the attention and pressure falls upon me, I can take it, I've always been able to take it."

"Until recently, until this year when you started fighting for something far bigger than yourself and against all odds won to the point to where the fight has enough momentum to move without you… but yet still need you for it's public face, it's rebellious queen, because without you showing your example of being good… or at least _leave behind the idea of you being good_ , then others can argue that you can't escape destiny or genetics and use that as a rightful excuse to say that they are right in cracking down upon those who violate tradition while also appearing to keep up their image of being in the right to the rest of the school and the fairytale families." Lizzie points out with emotion, surprising Raven a great deal as a result, she had been under the impression that Lizzie was on the Royal faction's side.

"And that is why you have been having the sleep terrors Raven." Maddie pointed out knowingly. "You are a witch not a soldier, just wanting to be different does not excuse for you having to be forced to stand alone to fight other's battles… or risking your life several times over. Not in Ever After, not in times of peace and equal laterals."

Raven blinked. "Risking my life?"

Lizzie studied Raven, her sharp eyes seemed to look through the other girl. "You've been in the thick of many different dangerous situations because of this conflict, even by Wonderland standards that is something very odd for a high school student in an area of extreme privilege yes? We are still minors yes? It is very odd for a minor and future monarch to be put in the path of danger these days in a first-world kingdom yes?"

"Er… well…" Raven hesitated, memories of Snow White, her mother, and the whole Dragon Games coming to the forefront mainly, followed by other incidents where she had feared for her life or despaired for her ability to find happiness for her future. "I'm just stressed is all, a bit of rest maybe… will cure it? I don't want to make mountains out of molehills."

"You've obviously have never seen a Wonderlandian molehill." Lizzie snorted.

"You know what I mean Lizzie." Raven rolled her eyes.

"Yes I do, which is why I'd very much like to point out that you, or more accurately your subconscious, is in fact very right to be freaking out in this instance and that you should not be attempting to push it all aside like you have been, your mind is trying to tell you that this arrangement isn't working and as your friends… we'd appreciate it a lot, because we worry about you, if you'd take yourself seriously."

Raven stood there for a while, studying the room more intently while she thought.

"My father and you lot have found something haven't you?" Raven asks even though she already suspects the truth.

"Our courage mostly." Lizzie coughs as if embarrassed. "Something that may save lives down the road as well if we play this correctly. We are grateful to him for pointing a few things out to our attentions, as well as to you for freeing us and striving to undo your mother's work."

"This is relevant Raven." Maddie informs with feeling. "Your father is not alone in this, we will not abandon him nor you for that matter so you mustn't worry about being alone anymore… just focus on doing what little you have left to do at this school and getting better, I miss your wacky positive self."

Raven looks helplessly at her oldest friend who is in turn looking at Raven with the same expression.

"This has already gotten out of control hasn't it?" Raven slumps tiredly.

"It always has." Maddie chuckled, going back to sipping tea. "But that never stopped you from doing what is right and wonderfully different. Adapt, focus on getting better, and strive to be you Raven that is all you need to worry about. Trust us."

"By protecting you your father has also opened the way to protect the rest of us." Lizzie smiled softly. "Don't worry about details for once, let us fight this battle while you fight to be well again."

Raven swallowed, unsure with what to think about all of this. "Is that the final verdict of the rest of you too?" She calls out to the rest of the room.

Alistair pokes his face guiltily from behind a curtain, Bunny in her rabbit form hops over from under Maddie's bed to affectionately head-bump Raven's leg, and Kitty appears in the rafters, giving Raven a shrug and a "rest easy we got this" gesture before turning her gaze towards the balcony.

Raven can't help but notice that there is sharpness in everybody's eyes, a fierceness that has Raven more than a little worried as well as feeling suddenly bewildered over how… _protective_ these people are suddenly with her when they've always just used to respect that Raven preferred to fight her own battles… that and most of them were on the Royal's side so this was highly alarming.

Though Lizzie was right, the tides were changing, her little rebellion obviously didn't need her to be completely active in it anymore, and it didn't need her protection any longer.

…It had grown teeth and claws and changed its shape to something more than just one faction of ideals versus another while she wasn't looking.

"I'm going to have to leave this place… aren't I?" Raven looks to the ceiling weakly.

"Sooner or later." Alistair coughs apologetically. "It's not about Rebels versus Royals anymore you see… and we appreciate your hard work and your dedication but…"

"There is a whole new fight now, one that we can only win if you are out of reach from… certain individuals." Lizzie informed. "It is unfair, we know, but between your current condition and our sudden, very informative business with your father… we need you to be distanced from fairytales as much as possible and I'm afraid that it will become vitally necessary for you to be as far away from here as possible."

Raven sighed, feeling as though she had just gone from a screaming youth fighting mostly by herself just for the right to be considered an equal to an old, battle-weary crone whose followers have just kindly, but firmly taken the mantle from her worn hands and were about to take her off to retirement while they went ahead to raise the foundations of the mountains themselves. Having her there in the background to speak fondly over, speak kindly to whenever they visited, and to point to as an example, but to carefully keep tucked away from the action all the same.

But it would give her a chance to break clean from all of this fairytale nonsense wouldn't it? This is the chance that she wanted wasn't it? Granted it wasn't exactly how she had been expecting her fight for freedom to end at this school but… did it matter as long as she was free?

…But the question still remained on what would happen after she left…

What would become of Apple White?

This was so very confusing.

"I'll be free?" Raven asked the ceiling.

"Your father has a plan to make certain that all of your dreams and hopes come true, without any interference from others." Maddie cracked a crazed grin, there was something different about her unsettling gaze that made Raven begin to worry a little bit more about this foreboding mysterious information her father and the Wonderlandians had found. "Not even the ghost hounds of the bandersnitch wastelands would be able to touch you, or what is our due. Oh! Don't forget to take that lunch basket with you, the one by the door that Bunny is hopping into, We understand that you like privacy but given all of the current loop-de-loo with Wonderland and you…"

"Ah." Raven said, nodding reluctantly, so when they said that she was to be watched more carefully than usual that had meant that every aspect of her life would apparently be monitored as long as she stayed at school which meant that whatever her father had planned for her, involved her being yanked out of school (which was far more likely) because whatever was coming… involved the need for her to be untouchable. By everybody deemed _nonessential_. This wasn't teenaged drama this was war.

"I must be really out of it if all this is actually making logical sense… let alone the fact that I'm so tired that I'm willing to go along with just about anything you guys and my father say right now…" The witch sighed, feeling very tired indeed, it seeped into her bones and weighed her down inside. "I'm not even sure that I'll have the energy for what I'm about to do to be honest."

"I can creep behind in the shadows if you want." Alistair offered. "If he tries to put up an unholy fuss I can just pop out and distract him long enough for Bunny to help you get away."

"And I can always off with his head." Lizzie added cheerfully.

Raven narrowed her eyes at them all, they were being far too eagerly protective for just a simple break-up, with Dexter, the boy who screamed and ran away from tiny spiders no less!

Something serious was going down.

And all because of her thrice-damned subconscious torturing her to the point of frequent collapse they weren't going to let her anywhere near the issue herself!

…Sad thing was that she was just too worn out to care anymore, actually having somebody else take on all the responsibility sounded pretty good right now…

"Thank you, but I hardly doubt he'd do as much damage as I have already don't to myself." Raven smiles genially at them all as she takes her leave, feeling lightheaded and more than a little woozy as she walks unsteadily down the hall in her stocking bared feet. Completely uncaring that she had forgotten her shoes.

XXX

"Raven!" Dexter calls when he spies her sitting by herself on a bench with a wicker basket hugged close on her lap beside the duck pond.

Raven flinches but does not look up from staring at the checkered cloth bundle inside her basket.

"Raven?" Dexter asks as he draws close.

"I am tired." Raven sighs, uncertain how to start.

"I'll bet, what with those nightmares of yours." Dexter huffs attempting to lean down to give her a hug, only to be stopped by a hand on his chest.

"Raven?" Dexter asks in confusion.

He is a sweet boy, he really is, sweet and comfortable, and warm when things are going well and there is no Apple or conflicts regarding Raven's heritage flying too close to home. Raven happily recalls herself taking comfort in his endearing hugs and enjoying his company. She always liked the smart and clever ones.

Indeed, while this was not love she would miss him.

"I am tired and I am going out of my mind here waiting for the other shoe to drop." Raven tries again. "I know that this doesn't make any sense at all but I… I need space, because if I don't distance myself from everything I don't know what would happen to the people closest to me when I finally collapse."

"Well… no that does not make sense exactly…" Dexter thinks it over carefully, the clever, clever, naïve boy. "But I'd think that if you let the people around you help support you upright then you wouldn't have to worry about collapsing anymore right?"

Raven smiles sadly. "Yes but how do I know whether or not they can handle the weight of it. My subconscious would not be acting up like this over a mere simple matter."

"So it is something serious." Dexter zeros in, he is a clever boy but he is also far too innocent to see what is coming. "I can help you Raven, you know I can, tell me what's wrong and I can help you support whatever weight that you are dealing with."

Raven smiles up at him in a very brittle sort of way. Oh how she would miss him and his kindness. "Then will you hold this daisy by the stem for me and promise to speak from the heart?"

Dexter takes the daisy by the stem. "Is this some sort of cute girly flower promise or something?" He asks with a smile, clearly charmed by all of this. Oh if only he weren't so naïve!

"Maybe." Raven makes a half sobbing sound that is easily mistaken for a laugh.

"Alright I promise to speak from the heart." Dexter grins as the spell is cast and the trap is set.

"Do you trust me? Do you trust that I'm a good person inside and would never do anything bad of my own free will?" Raven asks, looking up pleadingly at the boy.

"Of course I do!" Dexter Looks her in the eye but from the side of her vision Raven can see the white petals start to turn black at the outer edges.

Raven steps back slightly, casually. "Are you willing to stand up with and for me if I'm being harassed over my heritage or something going wrong with the school?"

"You're already strong enough to deal with that on your own but okay, yeah, I would be willing." Dexter nods, now growing concerned; as Raven's expression grows more pained and she steps farther back this time.

The petals of the flower in his hand grow even blacker, almost reaching the yellow center.

"Did you really believe that I set fire to that arena?" Raven asks trembling as she tiptoes on socked feet (she didn't think that she was capable of keeping balance in heels any longer, that and she'd forgotten to put on shoes before she went out) out of the boy's reach.

"What? No! …I mean…"

The cloth daisy turned completely black, wilted, and fell apart.

Raven covers her mouth with her hand as tears fall from her eyes. Ooh this hurt; she was going to miss him.

Dexter stared at the blackened remains of the flower. "Raven what was that?"

"I am sorry." Raven sobbed, the wind picking up as purple magic began sweeping all around her body. "Dear clever boy I am so sorry, I hope that one day you will find someone else who you can be unafraid to care for… Goodbye."

"Raven wait!" Dexter called out but she was already gone.

XXX

Raven made yet another hic as she entire body seemed to spasm of it's own accord and then groaned as she curled herself further in the cradle of a twisty old tree's roots of the practically ancient tree whose leafy branches now sheltered her. She had stopped crying sometime ago but was now plagued with a bout of pretty severe hiccups that would just not let up.

Bunny nuzzled her cheek with her whiskers and rubbed her fuzzy head and ears on Raven's shoulder soothingly, which did make Raven feel a little better despite her increasing light-headedness and her whole body feeling unnaturally flushed.

"You're too warm." Bunny the rabbit observed as she pressed her tiny wriggling nose to Raven's downturned forehead. "Call the others and tell them where you are so that you can be carried back."

"Ugh." Raven said laying her head back and scrubbing her face with her hands. "In just a moment I need to call my dad first, and I don't want to clue him in too much about how horrible this day has just gone."

In the background the two could hear the bells chime from the direction of the campus.

"Class is starting." Bunny perked her head and ears up.

"Perfect time to make this call while everybody is too distracted to try to look for me." Raven sighed thinking about how she had snuck away early that morning, while Apple was still asleep in order to meet Lizzie un-chaperoned.

Even through her uncertain words and obviously confused actions that seemed more habit now than actually being anything intentional towards trying to turn Raven towards the path of the story (Raven was beginning to suspect that not even Apple was fully aware of what she was doing at this point, the rut created from the cycling habit of going from fighting against Raven's life goals to accepting Raven for who she was only to get worried about her own future and cycle back again seemed to have taken a life of it's own), Apple had worried herself frantic over Raven and her declining mental state, trying to be as close to an often bed-ridden Raven as possible in her free time so that she could try to help her roommate through this…

While being utterly left in the dark over the fact that Apple's presence was actually only making things worse.

Raven felt like a terrible, horrible person right now. But the fact still remained that the witch was just too unequipped to even begin explaining to Apple what the nightmares were about, let alone have the stamina to deal with it.

If Apple was unable to accept Raven accepting her paternal heritage as well as being completely true to herself in _that_ particular, very specific, _enjoying both sides of the fence in it's rather poke-poke-nudge sense of the phrase_ let alone having a _queen_ rule beside her… then… just what was the point of this supposed friendship if Raven couldn't trust Apple to accept Raven as her true self, not just another in a long line of people pretending to be the same person (or at least from an Ever After point of view it was a bunch of people pretending to be the same person, in Raven's homeland each Evil Queen was seen as unique and different as the next and the title was just like another badge of honor for the royal family all the way up until the most recent one mucked that all up)? And the less said about Raven's inappropriate feelings that she had been trying so desperately to ignore the better!

Unrequited love was hard.

With one deep breathe and then another Raven relaxed slightly against the bark of the tree when it became clear that her hiccups were subsiding.

She dialed numbers on her phone.

" _Salve filia_! (Hello daughter!)" Raven's father greeted her joyously; he had always been a kind warm man with a confident passion that made him such a good king, a good father to her, and at one time, a good husband that nearly been able to keep her mother sane.

"Salve pater? (Hello father?)" Raven spoke in latanic tongue, the first language that she had ever learned as well as the chief language of her father's homeland. "Paratus sum, ego vis ad domum. (I am ready, I want to go home.)"

Raven's father graced her with a smile that made ages of tension melt from Raven's shoulders and suddenly, if just for that moment, everything felt right in the world again.

" _Recipiet filia._ (Welcome back daughter.)" The Good King told his daughter affectionately. " _Grata domum dilectam puellam!_ (Welcome home my dear girl!)"


	4. Chapter 4

Their plan had been brilliant, it had taken ages for Apple to figure out that it was really that simple; take away Raven Queen from the school and the Royal faction would inevitably bow down to the outraged Rebels, both the teenagers and children of the new generation and the adults of the old banning together in a wall of sheer anger and a will of steel, once the secrets of Raven's fears that haunted her in the night became known and the day she had left was over, fairytales as a whole received it's final nail in it's coffin.

Apple had always assumed that Raven was the only reason why the Rebellion was still around at all, that if Raven would just turn evil, or disappear then it would all go back to traditions and fairytales and glitter!

What surprised Apple was just how wrong she had been, yeah the students at school did have some close calls with danger over the past year and yes people could have gotten seriously hurt and… well Apple as she was now would be the first to admit that the initial harassment towards Raven had always been more than a bit much, but she had still been convinced that Raven had been the key to the Rebellion's fate… so when it became clear that Raven wasn't a key, but in actuality a guardian of sorts, someone who let the abused beast out of it's cage and nurtured it back to health until it stood by her, strong, proud, all teeth and a ferociousness that had only been kept under control because it simply respected Raven too much to try to lash out and it loved her like any cat or dog would love a truly caring and nurturing owner.

Apple had never expected the beast to be bold enough to bite anybody either, but the second it's mother, protector, and guardian fell ill and left the creature was more than happy to do right by Raven in it's own, very unstoppable and decidedly less restrained way.

XXX

It had been so oddly easy, too easy, Raven's frazzled-to-the-point-of-paranoia brain insisted. All that had to be done was for her father to send out a first-priority message to the school stating that he had suddenly become very ill and that it was worrisome enough that it was probably best if Raven were to come back home. Immediately. In fact the fastest coach that they had on hand had been sent out an hour ago and would be there to collect her sometime that evening, or that very night if travel conditions were bad.

Almost immediately, after a few minutes of Raven's father explaining to her about what his plan entailed passed by, a reply came from the Headmaster himself stating that he understood the urgency and would be sending Raven off with her coursework to do however long she was at home so that she wouldn't get behind in school.

Feeling calmer than she had in a while, Raven indulged in talking to her father for a while longer before bidding him farewell until she saw him once again tomorrow morning and hexting Maddie, telling her where she was and vaguely implying how she was wondering how the roads would be and if they were going to be fit for travel in the next week or so… because Nevermore's supplies were coming from home of course and so Raven was just… innocently wondering.

Maddie sent back a long cheer in type form, Raven sighing as she relaxed against the tree and waited, ignoring Apple's hexts and calls asking Raven where she had just scampered off to so early in the morning no doubt, as well as a few from Dexter, the contents of which Raven wasn't brave enough to take a good look at.

When Alistair came into view Bunny made the executive decision to turn Raven's noisy phone off so that they could better sneak back into the dorms.

Raven was very proud of herself for being able to walk back on her own two feet with Alistair only being there to act as a light support, she didn't feel all that well, and she didn't feel or look as strong as she used to be, but at least she was upright and walking that was something important.

She must have not looked as well or as important to others though, because when Hunter had come across her and Alistair along the slightly hidden path behind the tree line outside of the dorms he gasped and raced to take bunny in her basket out of Raven's arms and attempted to hold Raven's other side up by using his body as a crutch.

"What happened?" He demanded Alistair and Bunny. "Is she okay? Apple said at breakfast that she had up and disappeared sometime early this morning and Apple hasn't been able to find her! Everybody has been looking for her, like literally; it looks like the entire campus has been out searching! At first we just thought that she had gone out to get some fresh air, like she's done in the past after she's had a bad dream but then when we heard about her father taking ill-"

"How did you hear about that?" Raven's voice was panicked, almost hunted. _No one aside from the Headmaster and Giles should have heard about that-_

Hunter attempted to soothe Raven by making hushing noises. "Apple told everyone, she got a call from somebody and that is when she knew something was wrong, it's okay, we are all going to help you through-"

Suddenly all Raven could see were pretty white walls with golden bars on the wide windows, pretty people with pretty faces closing in on her, watching her every move, and Apple soaked in the blood of Raven's mother reaching out for-

Raven barely felt three pairs of arms holding her up before her mind shut down.

XXX

"Thank you for stopping by." Cerise nodded to the prone form lying curled up beside Cedar's legs on her bed. "She's had a tough past few weeks. Maddie and Kitty had some important things to look over earlier but were too worried about leaving her alone since she's suddenly taken ill... I guess hearing about her father getting seriously sick was the last straw for her."

"It's finally happened hasn't it? Alistair said that this place has finally driven her out of her mind!" Hunter almost snarls absolutely livid as he helplessly watches Ashlynn check Raven over. "They weren't able to accept that they couldn't mold her into their perfect Evil Queen and now they've gone and cracked her up on the inside!"

"Stress fever." Ashlynn reports coming up to the two. "She needs lots of rest and uninterrupted peace before it can break."

"But between her nightmares and living in this place she's not going to get much of either." Cerise sighed, rubbing her head. "How long can we keep Apple away from her? She's the reason for the sudden bout of sleeplessness and stress. Raven's petrified that she's planning something that involves trying to get Raven to see the evil side or some such nonsense and her subconscious won't let her forget it."

"Um…" Ashlynn bites her lips looking guilty.

"I knew it." Cerise snarls. "She is planning something isn't she?"

"Er… well… She doesn't mean any harm by it." Ashlynn tries to reason.

"Uh huh, then explain to me how there is no harm in Raven being utterly terrorized by Apple's recent "harmless" little scheme hmmm?" Cerise points to the bed.

Ashlynn sighs and shakes her head. "I get your point." The princess sighs again. "And I suppose that there is more than just being scared of being harassed to become the next Evil Queen for Raven to worry about."

"I can think of plenty of other things that she might be worried about." Hunter nods and Ashlynn doesn't know whether to be guilty or relieved that he doesn't ask for what Ashlynn knows.

Ashlynn has two uncles, Blondie is a commoner from a fairly liberal area of the kingdom and had a babysitter just like Raven, Briar can actually identify with Raven on a personal level, and they all knew that Cupid would have a very open mind about it all.

But people like Raven and Briar have to keep quiet or pretend very convincingly that they aren't different in the romantic department while in school, fairytales leave no room for that kind of lifestyle.

Except things were changing, fairytales didn't have to be followed, people were happier, or at least Ashlynn and Hunter and people like them were happier, no more arranged marriages meant the freedom to find someone you were willing to be happy with, not pretend that you were happy with someone you could never love.

But for people like Briar and Raven, they still had to hide.

Well perhaps it was a little better for Raven than it was for Briar in that regard, if her dates with Dexter were anything to go by, swinging both ways would have it's advantages, however Raven was the one with an insane mother whose shadow she was still trying to crawl out of… and now that she wasn't a fairytale character anymore all the usual protocols for how she was to act reverted back and away to the protocols of her own home kingdom, a completely different nation with it's own culture and views on how things were supposed to be done.

Namely the chief concern would be over the fact that Raven's kingdom's traditions and societal norms were starkly different than that of Ever After, which was Apple's home kingdom.

And since they didn't teach about that kind of cultural diversity in classes or at home, and since the "good" fairytale kingdoms- with a few exceptions- only did international business with each other and they tended to be rather conservative in order to keep the royalty's children from getting funny ideas, Apple would-… was having trouble accepting that Raven might want to marry a girl one day and that it was okay to do so.

Which was why they had dragged Apple off to talk to Cupid yesterday after that stint in the infirmary because the winged girl would know how to handle Apple and explain, in very easy to understand language with a special slideshow of pictures and diagrams (apparently this wasn't Cupid's first talk on the subject) that some people liked the opposite gender, others liked the same gender, some preferred both, and some never got interested in that kind of thing at all.

To say that Apple was stupefied was an understatement, but to give Cupid credit she did manage to be patient enough through the initial torrent of complete denial that such a thing was possible and get Apple to listen long enough for the blonde to understand that Raven did not have a choice and that she would be very hurt if Apple was not diplomatic enough (like the kind and open-minded queen she was supposed to become, that had been emphasized just enough to make Apple feel guilty for her outbursts) to try to understand that Raven did not have a choice in how she was born and in the fact that Raven came from a culture that was vastly different from Apple's and despite the fairytale roles going on for generations, Raven's homeland still held onto it's ancient traditions and operated on a different governmental system that was not, in fact, governed by Snow White or Apple, or anybody in Ever After because it was a completely different nation altogether.

Ashlynn didn't know what startled Apple the most; the fact that people like Raven existed, or that Raven had a life and something to actually go back to outside of a fairytale story, that Raven had her own plans for her future and that they were far more tactile and achievable that Apple's own current prospects.

And then the next day Raven went missing for an entire day with no one knowing where she went, Apple was still confused over her sudden new understanding about her roommate's romantic preferences but she was still in the right sort of mind to be justifiably worried, as well as feeling very guilty for most likely being the reason why Raven had decided to runaway that morning in the first place since the witch had overheard them talking had been reduced to tears as a result.

And then the whole thing with Raven breaking up with Dexter came out when the sobbing boy came running to Cupid all frantic at the news that everybody was looking for Raven (they had even halted classes close to lunchtime when Apple had finally lost her nerve and went to the Headmaster about how Raven had just vanished and he immediately ordered the student to help in a school-wide search of the premisis) and told her about some charmed black magical flower that revealed some things that… Dexter had not wanted Raven to find out about and now because she felt that she couldn't trust him she had abruptly ended things between them.

Then added on top of that was the news that Raven's father had taken very ill to the point to where Raven was being sent for immediately since his illness was apparently so dire that his daughter would have to be by his side… for however long he had left.

…And then things just became that more real for Apple because suddenly there is no future prospect of a prince to become Raven's future husband and Good King (even though Apple never approved of Dexter in the first place) and there was the fact that Dexter seemed to be under (the correct) assumption that Raven's nightmares were about the Dragon Games incident and how she was starting to feel like she couldn't trust anybody anymore.

The weight of everything happening all at once was obviously too much for Apple to handle.

Apple had initially, for a brief frantic moment, been worried that this was the last tip for Raven to follow into her mother's paranoid path but then to everyone's surprise, Kitty, who had been watching the whole soap opera from the growing crowd of curious onlookers, pointed out in an actually very lovely- if dryly irritated and sleepy- speech that; was far too sensible to go through that crap again and she was much more likely to just start cutting certain irritating people out of her life completely seeing as how Raven looked more worried about certain Royal factions getting too forgetful over the fact that she was a living being with feelings and therefore would attempt to force her into trying to become like an Evil Queen in some manner or just outright accuse her of doing bad stuff just merely because she existed. Kitty went on to explain with increasing irritation about how in Wonderland, where the people were actually _civilized_ , there was an understanding that all living creatures could only be pushed so far until they hit a breaking point and with Raven, her breaking point would not lead to her becoming evil so much as it might lead her to… oh say going slowly but surely insane with nightmares and depression until she just stopped functioning.

And really, Kitty had continued over Apple's initial objections and everyone else's stunned silence, it should have been obvious to everybody concerned that Raven's panic attacks were caused by their need to make her out to be a bad person underneath seeing as how they kept claiming to be the good guys and the people with inherited rights to being _holier than thou_ , that they were going too far and that Raven was a living being with feelings of her own that were easily hurt when it turned out over and over again that so many people were just willing to either bully her into becoming something she was not or just for the mere crime of being _alive_ then turning around and trying to be all friendly when things went wrong and she had to fix somebody else's mistakes that nearly got everybody killed a hundred times over!

And if they did not believe Kitty and all the trouble that she had just taken with her speech then they all could just fuck off because Raven was her friend too and Wonderland owed her for lifting that curse, plus she was pretty sleep-deprived herself because she was being an _actual friend_ and comforting Raven, _the correct way_ , so that she wasn't reduced to a screaming fit because she was utterly terrorized by her dreams of people trying to kill her over her just wanting to freaking be Raven Queen and not an Evil Queen, and the next time somebody, _anybody_ tried to force Raven into becoming like her mother or tried to bully Raven for justifiably rebelling against said "good fair people" for making her life hell in the first place, Kitty was going to personally shove their heads up their asses and steal the damn Evil Queen role herself just to shut everybody up because this! This whole situation right here with Raven being driven out of her mind with fear, Kitty without a good night's sleep for a while, and everybody just automatically assuming that it was all somehow Raven's fault all over again and seriously? Nobody has been able to come up with a better fall guy for when things go wrong aside from Raven?

Ashlynn got the distinct impression in the ensuing silence and Kitty motioning for people to just save everybody the trouble and just line up for their heads to meet their asses right then and there, that they had all just witnessed Kitty snapping at the very end of her rope.

It sort of went downhill quickly from there; Apple tried to argue… and question, tried to do both really, in a reasonable tone that seemed to be more as though she was trying to convince herself more than Kitty that she was going to get through this conversation with a stiff upper lip, between trying to downplay Kitty's theatrics and actually being concerned at the news that apparently Raven had been having nightmares of Apple literally stabbing the witch in the back or killing her in her sleep, Kitty seeming to get more and more angry at having to stay in this same conversation when she just wanted to nap when both Maddie and Lizzie had appeared from the crowd to flank Kitty on both sides and sort of joined in on Kitty's irritation and surprising (save for Maddie but she was Raven's closest and oldest friend so…) defense of Raven as well as politely (save for Kitty who was not being polite at all) poking holes into the vitality of lots of supposedly "good" royalty characters and their knowledge from the very beginning of Raven being the key to cure all the cursed worlds and the fact that they were still preventing Raven from curing said cursed realms to this day with some, admittedly scandalous, accusations.

Ashlynn hadn't been able to stay for the entire altercation, because she had been quickly pulled aside by Hunter who whispered that Raven was in bad shape and needed someone she sort of trusted right now to look her over because the Headmaster had spies looking into Raven's personal medical files back in the healer's offices, and that he'd explain more later. So Ashlynn had let Hunter sneak her away without anybody knowing therefore she was currently unaware of how this most recent tiff had turned out.

"I'm caught between shaking Kitty's hand and never forgiving her." Hunter grumbled darkly. "She admitted some pretty personal things that Raven was obviously trying to keep secret in front of the entire campus."

Ashlynn thought back to how angry Kitty had gotten over the mere thought that people knew that Raven was the key to cure the curses but went out of their way to ensure that she couldn't because it would look bad for their bottom line of villains and descendants of the Evil Queen in particular to look as bad as possible so that they could look better in everybody's eyes.

"Actually sweetie… I think that Kitty exploding like that was a long time coming." Ashlynn sighed. "And if all of the things that they were talking about turns out to be true a lot of fair maidens and heroes, kings and queens, are going to be clamoring for cover in the aftermath of this. It's probably for the best if we help to keep Raven low to the ground too actually. She isn't actually in any shape to defend or help herself if people start looking more closely at her."

"How they would know these kind of things is what I'm more concerned about." Hunter scratched his chin. "Wouldn't the Wonderlandians have spoken out in outrage if they knew about all of that beforehand?"

"Yes, they would have… that is strange." Ashlynn admitted. "I wonder if the Queen of Hearts or somebody has been doing some investigating into why nobody ever considered that maybe Raven was the key to getting rid of those curses… that or Kitty made it all up. Which I highly doubt because her theory actually makes sense and she'd have no reason to make that all up."

"So by keeping Raven out of sight… does that include keeping her from Apple as well?" Cerise asks carefully, eyeing Ashlynn wearily.

"Um…" Ashlynn scratches her head in uncertainty. "Is that even something that is possible to achieve?"

No it wasn't, Raven admitted to herself, rubbing her cheek into Cerise's flannel pillows before settling back down to rest. She'd need it for later when she'd need to get up to pack and meet her ride.

She was going to have to talk to Apple before she left, and what happened after that… was still something yet to be determined.


	5. Chapter 5

There had been no arguments or fairytales the last evening that Apple would ever see Raven.

It was quiet and soft and filled with confessions that Apple didn't understand the meanings of until it was too late, until after Raven had gone away.

It was bittersweet and touching, and so unlike anything that Apple had been expecting so she didn't see the end of their friendship coming until…

Until long after Raven had left the world of fairytales forever after.

XXX

Raven was surprised with what little she wanted to take back home with her, she didn't even pack more than her two casual outfits, one with the t-shirt, pencil skirt, and leather jacket, and the other one, the dress that Maddie gave her that was of Wonderland design- light, sweet, more quaint than foreboding, and perfect for tea parties- she was already currently wearing that one on her slumped frame for travel.

The Queen of Hearts and her father had already sent people to collect Nevermore and the dragoness's things, which was admittedly much more than what Raven currently had with her, though arguably a dragon needed considerably more equipment and care products as is natural course but still!

A whole side the room filled with things and villain memorabilia and yet all Raven had to show for her time spent here was a small old-fashioned hand-me-down suitcase containing one spare outfit, her toothbrush, a translated book on Wonderland folk tales that Maddie had promised to be interesting enough to make her long carriage ride home seem very short, and her framed photographs of her life here… the happier times she had at school. Her side of the short entrance hallway to the dorm was completely barren now.

Raven had waited, wrapped up in a warm comforting cocoon of an old fuzzy purple and white shawl and her bed's black comforter, alternating between lying her flushed, achy body down on the plush red rug in the middle of the room and siting up, just staring listlessly out the open balcony doors and attempting to just _be_ for once, to simply exist and feel the contradiction between the warm of her covers and the crisp cool air coming through from the open balcony and the cloudy twilight of evening.

It was nearly time for her to leave, surely Apple would return soon, before Raven had to resort to turning on her phone and calling the princess herself. Raven didn't want to face all the hexts that Dexter had been sending her, demanding an explanation no doubt.

Raven had asked, while Cedar and Ashlynn had helped her into the bath and kindly washed her hair for her if somebody would please tell Apple where to find her close to the time when Raven had to leave… because it just could not be left off without at least some words spoken between them. They said that they would but Raven was starting to have her doubts (it was difficult enough convincing the others to even let her out of their sight let alone leaving her alone with Apple… Raven was pretty sure that Kitty wasn't in the room with her, but even so it was difficult to be certain…).

Raven was dozing where she sat when the sound of the balcony doors softly closing roused her.

"Raven." Apple gently knelt in front of the bundled witch, her movements slow and careful. "Oh Raven look at you." The princess crooned in distress.

"I heard that Kitty got really angry and admitted some things earlier." Raven's voice was low, cracked with defeat as she stared at the plush carpet, trying to mentally push aside that voice in the back of her brain that was still insisting that the material might flood with blood at any moment. "I tried to control the dream you know, I tried with all the will I had, it broke my heart when I couldn't get it to stop, and then things just kept getting worse and worse until I held no control any longer! I know that you'd never resort to _physically_ harming me over our different stances on life but I've become so worn down by the dreams and me wondering whether or not I'd even be _allowed_ to have any sort of life of my own what with my mother doing her utmost to figure out a way to break out of her prison and my growing dread that I'll never be able to fully escape all this Royal and Rebel nonsense even after I graduate and-… well, all that stuff I said yesterday wasn't, er… crazy talk you know."

Raven cleared her throat awkwardly with a grimace. "It's… you might be disgusted, but… it just takes a lot of somebody to try to hide those kinds of major things all the time. I'm just so tired of being unable to recognize my dad's heritage or… well, you know, a whole other very important side of myself… and while I am very charmed by Ever After and it's culture, and I do rather like it here, I miss my people, and I miss my home I-I… I'm sorry Apple but aside from my looks and my powers I've seemed to have inherited nothing else from my mother… everything else from my personality to my dreams is all… my father's genetic influence. I am-… I am not a fairytale character, even if I had wanted to become the Evil Queen I-I I'm starting to suspect that I never was able to actually do so, I just don't have what it takes to be an Evil Queen… well not the kind that you had been hoping and wishing for at least, really I'm afraid that if things had been different and I hadn't rebelled I would have only ended up disappointing you because I would have been unable to meet up with all of your hopes for a perfect villain… I mean I've never been able to make heads or tales out of the fine line between a perfect villain and a bad one, everybody has such varied opinions on what villains are supposed to do that it was just impossible! I mean what my classes say and what you say and what other people say is so different that I've given up trying to tell heads from tails a long time ago… You know?"

Raven knew that she was rambling, and sounding like an idiot, and that Apple probably didn't or refused to understand even half of what she was saying but she had to get it all out, explain why she was leaving and why it was utterly useless to keep clinging onto this lie that they were the closest of friends and that Raven was in any capacity her mother's daughter and heir… that and as long as she kept talking then it would stall whatever Apple had to say, Raven could get it all out until there was nothing left to say, until her voice was hoarse and too soft to get dragged into another argument, she'd let whatever Apple had to say wash over her, take the pain that the princess would feel over this betrayal, let Apple have her closure in her anger and in this final cut in their acquaintance, sharp and clean, no jagged edges to get in the way, Apple would find a new, better villain who was actually good at being a villain and since Raven's homelands would be seceding from the status of two fairytale kingdoms and just go official about being a combined non-fairytale one (they already worked under the same governmental system and were practically one big kingdom- even though they weren't anywhere near each other geographically- already so might as well go all the way right?)… It would be highly unlikely that Raven would ever have to see Apple ever again. There would be no reason to after this.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I tried so hard to keep it together, but after mom broke free, and then the arena- and the school- she could have killed you because she hates your mother so much- she was planning on killing your mom and the staff and everybody I cared about could have- _hex my mom could have ended up getting herself killed_! I was so scared, I'm so scared, I've tried to push it away but the dreams and then everything else- my father is _furious_ at your mom for not keeping my mom in a place where she and others would have been safe!"

Tears sprang to Raven's eyes, she was sobbing now. "I tried to keep control on everything, I tried to make things go back to normal but it all slipped through my fingers and now there's this and the Wonderlandians and I won't be able to come back and it hurts because I never wanted to hurt you or make you hate me and I've tried so hard to be friends with you but the fairytale kept getting in the way and we have nothing much in common aside from that and what's worse is that my stupid, stupid heart just didn't kn'ow when to just stop at the level of loving you as just a friend and leave it at that!

Beside her Raven could almost feel Apple tense up in front of her as the princess let out a confused sound but the witch plowed on regardless.

"And I couldn't love Dexter because I barely had time to know him and he was only ever there when I was winning or when things were going good with the Rebel thing and it feels like every time my mother's heritage comes up I've always had to stand alone and fight all by myself that thrice-damned stigma and every time something goes wrong people are always looking at me to magically fix it and make it all better even though I'm just a teenager and I don't know what I'm doing! All these future rulers being trained to rule kingdoms and make these kind of decisions and not a single one aside from you and occasionally someone else pops up to help me not look like a complete idiot, and while I am absolutely thrilled that the Rebel movement is doing so great and people I've come to care about are finding their own ways to be happy on their own terms, it always feels like whenever something goes wrong all the focus is brought onto me and the fact that people still expect me to go fallout evil on everything and it's so lonely being singled out and I feel guilty for being so scared when I know that the Rebels are afraid of speaking out and having all of that pressure put on them and I know that it carries more weight if I'm the one to stand firm while everybody works on creating their own futures away from the spotlight, but it just got to be too much after my mother broke out and every little bad thing that happened afterwards was automatically my fault even though I was no where near anything and then suddenly all the little things just kept piling up and I just… I can't _stand up_ anymore! I can't think, I can't breath, I can't sleep… I-I can't find my _courage_! I-"

Arms encircled Raven, gently cradling her head and upper body in a warm and comforting embrace.

"Shh, shh, hush now, it's alright, everything will be just fine." Apple soothed shakily, her hands trembling as they trailed up and down Raven's back and shoulder.

"No it's not!" Raven insisted. "I've become a coward!" _A coward where there once stood a brave girl who could take anything thrown at her and still have the ability to be unafraid of you and be your friend at the end of the day._ Raven thought morosely. Mourning what she was losing as a result of all of this. "I wanted to have the strength to always be your friend but now I-…" Raven hicced crumpling in on herself with only Apple's arms to keep her limp form upright.

"You're just stressed, once your dad gets better and you've had some time away to relax you'll be right as rain! I-I'm sure of it!" Apple sounded like she was trying to convince them both, to make it happen with nothing but sheer force of will. "You just need a little time to yourself after so much stress, you'll see, when you get back you'll have had enough time to decompress and everything will go back to normal. It'll be fine, everything will be fine."

"But my father-… Apple I don't know if I'll be _allowed_ to come back." Raven mumbled into the fabric of Apple's shirt.

"Hush now, d-don't think like that!" Apple pleaded in a desperate whisper. "Of course you'll come back s-silly Raven, w-where else would you go? You're still needed here you know."

Except Raven did have someplace to go, she had options to the ceiling promised to her, promises that she knew that her father could and would deliver on, and she wasn't necessary to the Rebel cause any longer, not her physical presence at any rate, and knowing her father the second he had her back home and safe he was going to do everything within good reason to convince Raven that her happy life back home was worth far too much to go back to Ever After and Raven wouldn't have the heart to make him so worried ever again if she could help it, he had already lost the woman he loved, she was hardly going to make him fear that he'd lose his only daughter too… that and the local Wonderland natives had made it abundantly clear today that Raven coming back to this school was _so not_ _an option_ to the point where they weren't even going to _think about it_ … and Raven didn't really think that she'd be able to resign herself to come back after she had all but embarrassed herself with so much exposed weakness added onto whatever it was that Kitty had mentioned in public that had made Hunter and Ashlynn look at her with such pity and apology that it actually, _physically hurt_ to look at them in the eye (but as a side effect it had made being bathed by somebody else a little bit more bearable, since Raven had an excuse not to look Ashlynn or Cedar in the eye while the other girls had scrubbed her as if Raven was another one of Ashlynn's stray animals and had avoided any awkward silence on Ashlynn's end because the girl was too busy being in her mothering mode and humming soothingly while answering Cedar's innocent questions in regards to Raven's anatomy)!

"You don't hate me?" Raven snuffled in sudden confusion when Apple's arms tightened around her.

"Of course I don't hate you!" Apple choked as if affronted by the very idea. "Granted I'm beginning to understand that I don't actually know a lot of things about you… and perhaps that's my fault for focusing more on the whole Evil Queen thing instead of working to get to know you for who you are better, but I still consider you my best friend! How could I not after everything that we've been through! And when you do come back well have all the time in the world for me to get to know you better so that we can become even closer friends than before!" Apple declared as if her saying so would just automatically force the world and the stars that guide it to line up and for things to go exactly her was just because she had spoken it and expected it to happen.

"It's not going to be easy on either of us." Raven realized with a growing horror as she sat up to look at the princess because anything concerning impossible expectations from Apple where Raven was involved… never happened. It just didn't. "I can't guarantee or promise you anything! Don't you see? I don't have a choice in that area any longer, the momentum of this force has slipped my grasp and now it's run off to the point to where I'd never be able to make things at all how they were even if I were to be allowed to try! Everything else, from having a choice in my future as a royal without any fairytale duties to worry about to my personal happiness and future prospects practically guaranteed the moment I step foot back home, and for once having a chance to be seen as my father's daughter and as myself instead of the latest incarnation of my dead ancestor, that is all in my future, however everything else is merely going to be cast away from my grip! And I no longer possess the power nor the will to stop it!"

"Well I didn't say that everything had to go exactly back to how it was…" Apple worriedly patted Raven's cheek and attempted to drag the witch close once again, no doubt calling the witch's metal state into question. "Maybe you should rest a bit until they come to get you."

"Apple you have to promise me something before I go okay?" Raven said seriously, refusing to be shooed back down into the other's full embrace. The witch trying and knowing that she wasn't going to succeed in letting Apple know that she was not to return to school while also avoiding explaining _why_ she wasn't going to return back to school. She couldn't, not when the Wonderlandians were counting on her discretion and her father would have an easier time with giving Raven a happy life as long as Snow White and a few others never found out what was going on or what was being planned until it was right on top of them and too late to suppress (despite whatever Kitty had admitted in the heat of the moment earlier that day).

Apple was both too young and far too loved by everybody to be caught up completely in the crossfire, it would not be pleasant to find out some things about her own mother but as long as Apple showed at least an ounce of her stubbornness in this then there was hope.

"Okay sure, I'll promise you anything." Apple nodded distractedly, trying to coax Raven back down.

"Promise me to become strong, to find happiness no matter whether you get a fairytale or not, to not be afraid to go after everything that your heart desires even if life turns sideways and nothing turns out as it had once appeared, that even if you do get your fairytale ending that you will always remain yourself and not let anybody tell you that it's wrong for being a strong independent queen and that even if you refuse to find yourself another villain that you remember that you are not limited by the fairytale or by anything that really matters, that you can still work to find your own happy future and still be queen at the same time as long as you don't forget that it is all possible if only you were to reach for it and refuse to bow down!" Raven pleaded attempting to dance between the lines of old arguments and the tearing despair of her heart that all that the princess had promised would happen between them, the friendship that was supposed to last a human's lifetime, was never to be.

"…Yes Raven, I will keep that in mind when I become Snow White and get my happy ending." Apple nodded slowly, eyeing Raven with a look that clearly showed that the princess thought that Raven had lost her mind and was spouting sentimental nonsense because she was so stressed over everything on top of her father's "illness" and was to be pitied but not taken too seriously at the moment.

"I am serious!" Raven whined while being roughly brought back into Apple's embrace.

"I know you are, now rest, I'll be here until they come to get you." Apple patted Raven's hair while crooning softly. "You need to reserve your strength for your trip.

Raven stared at the quilted hem of Apple's white jacket in amazement. "Dilectam puellam te potest! Non potest videre hoc est, ultimum tempus simul? (My dear girl you are impossible! Can you not see that this is our last moment together?)"

"What was that?" Apple asked peering down. "Are you sure that you are well enough for travel? I couldn't understand a word you said."

Raven sighed, defeated. "Sorry, I was speaking the native language of my father's home kingdom. The first language that I ever learned to be more precise."

"You're father's kingdom speaks a different language?" Apple sounded surprised, which made sense to Raven since people usually only gave her father a cursory glance before focusing in on the whole Evil Queen thing.

"Yes and my mother's homeland still uses an old language in some areas that is completely different from Ever After standard." Raven leaned further into Apple, soaking up what little she could from the princess while she was still there to do so.

"I… didn't know that." Apple admitted guiltily. "Do you speak that too?"

"I can understand it and read it far better than I can speak it, mom wanted me to practice Ever After standard and it's accent more though because I'd be going to school here." Raven mumbled, trying to forget the memory of the resignation on her mother's face when she told Raven that she was going to read her bedtime stories in the more "accepted" language from now on. It had been a few years before her mother had completely succumbed to insanity.

"Well you'll just have to teach me a bit of both when you get back." Apple declared with unwavering certainty.

"…Te amo dilectus meus princeps, paeniteo. (I love you my beloved princess, I am so sorry.)" Raven smiled grimly, forcing herself to relax in the embrace and savor what little time she had.

"What does that bit mean?" Apple asked, running her fingers through Raven's hair.

Raven didn't say anything more, focusing on enjoying the last few seconds of feeling Apple's arms around her before Apple startled at a serious looking Cheshire Cat appearing out of nowhere and opening the door to allow her daughter, Maddie and the other Wonderlandians in.

XXX

"What is up with them Raven, why were they so… weird about you asking me to help walk you to your carriage?" Apple whispered lowly into Raven's ear while trying her best to inconspicuously glance over their shoulders to the Wonderlandian procession behind and beside them. The princess looked a little weary between the hostile maniac smiles of some and the eerie stoicism of others.

"It's out of my hands." Raven shrugged before quickly changing the subject. "Could you put my arm around your shoulders? I don't think that I'm awake enough for- yes thank you-… um…" The witch looked up slightly to eye the other students lining either side of the sidewalk like a parted sea, whispering to one another before quickly looking back down. "Why is everybody… looking?"

"You went missing for an entire day Raven." Apple pointed out. "Everybody was ordered to help search for you. People were very worried."

Raven winced. "Sorry."

Apple sighed, looking up at the archway as they entered the main building. "I guess I can't really blame you for wanting to be alone considering everything that's been happening to you lately."

"This is really embarrassing." Raven almost whimpered drawing herself a little closer to Apple while also attempting to hide more of her body with her shawl and lowering the wide brim of the traveling top-hat that Maddie had put on her head as a parting gift before they all headed out. She felt so exposed, and it didn't help that the others were looking at her like she was the star in a funerary procession; the icing on the cake right now would be-

"-and here she comes now my dear viewers, Raven Queen who in the face of personal tragedy and illness has gathered the strength to momentarily say goodbye to her friends at Ever After before departing to see her ailing father-"

Raven looked up at the sound of Blondie's voice and for a second she caught the eye of a glum-looking Dexter recording Blondie behind a mirror-pad, for a moment Raven had almost hoped that he'd say something, anything, at least give her a wave or a rude gesture… something- _anything_ that might give her a shred of hope that she was reading the situation wrong, that there might be hope for her to maybe return one day and finish what she had started, because while having her happy ending handed to her on a platter was fantastic… she'd still miss this place, she'd miss Apple and her peers and actually being in as close to a normal school as was possible for someone of her social stature! Because if Dexter stood up for himself in some way, any way really, and acted like the king or grown up Prince Charming he was training to become then that meant that this all wasn't totally hopeless!

That and her impending future was kind of scary, what with it being taken completely out of her hands and away from everything that she had ever known or felt comfortable with (and _that_ was saying something all things considered).

If Dexter could stand up for himself and prove that he wasn't afraid to be in the spotlight then maybe others would follow his example or prove to be more than a bunch of scared teenagers who merely followed Raven and Apple as the leaders like a heard of sheep and maybe that would mean that there wouldn't be as much chaos from everybody finding out that the fairest fairytale characters out there weren't nearly as so and Raven wouldn't have to be completely cut off from the people she had slowly grown to care about, she could conquer the nightmares, become proper friends with Apple, and-

But then Humphrey took her picture and the flash left Raven blinking like a day-blinded barn owl in the aftermath, the afterimage of Dexter meekly looking down and away, attempting to hide from her stare, and as a consequence having any attention drawn to him, imprinting to the backs of her eyelids.

With a hollow feeling Raven realized that it was very likely that he'd never stand up for himself, let alone herself or anyone else, most likely he'd ensure to end up the husband of a girl who stood in the spotlight, who ruled the kingdom from a public prospective, while he contented himself with being in the shadows; an unequal relationship of convenience and responsibility that held no passion or vibrancy to be real love.

It was sad that her crush was so insistent to not stand beside the one he claimed to care about, Raven may be fond of the smart and clever ones but she also longed for somebody willing to stand beside her as a united front and hold enough passion to not care what the world thought about it.

As he had clearly cared more about what the school thought of him being with her when the chips were down or things got tough rather than caring about her or himself, it was probably for the best if she no longer attempted to put much stock in his life and future any longer. A clean, nearly painless, break on that front, he'd get over her quickly and she'd be left to focus on moving on from her feelings for Apple, nothing more nothing less.

Cupid might be able to pull him out though, or create a relationship that worked in it's very unique sort of way, showering him with affection and making him feel loved in a way that would be impossible for Raven to do without frightening him with her heritage, Cupid was of the right sort for him and Raven truly hoped that they'd find each other and work it out in the future. It made Raven more happy than jealous at the thought and the witch supposed that was a good thing considering the fact that it was after all just a crush for her… just a crush for him as well.

As if to highlight her thoughts Raven cast Cupid a brave little smile as they walked (staggered in her case) by, and bless her heart Cupid gave her a salute and a flirtatious wink that actually made Raven's smile broaden.

If people like her weren't so forbidden with the school rules and if Dexter hadn't caught her eye first, Raven wondered if perhaps Cupid would have been the one to capture her interest.

"Well that was awkward." Apple muttered low enough for only Raven (and Kitty and cerise, and perhaps a few others with super hearing) to hear as they rounded the corner. "Awfully rude of Dexter to pretend that you aren't hurting worse than he is. Very improper for a prince Charming, perhaps I should suggest that he get more training… I mean he is a Royal after all, what hope does he have at any princess, let alone a fair one, if he keeps acting all… whiny, it simply won't do for his future role. You certainly dodged a big one when you broke up with him."

Ah yes, Dexter was a Royal, him breaking from the proverbial mold by dating someone like Raven… or even Cupid for that matter, would merely be practice, curiosity, or perhaps a last taste of freedom before he went forward with whatever fairytale came his way.

Most likely Apple would have her hands full for the next while attempting to recreate Daring's flawless performance in Dexter seeing as how the older brother was proven not to be Apple's prince-

And Apple would refuse Darling's right to be the Prince Charming on principle so that only left-

Raven clutched at her chest under her shawl and felt Apple shift to hold even more of Raven's weight up as the witch stumbled slightly at the sharp stab of pain and jealousy of Apple just… so easily forgetting all of what Raven said and moving on from Raven with-

But that train of thought didn't make any sense in so many ways. Raven loved Apple, that much was certain and yes Raven would feel jealous over any boy that Apple decided to play prince and damsel with… but did fate really have to arrange it so that she'd end up feeling jealous over her ex-boyfriend being the one to fill the role of the prince for the girl that she was in love with? They didn't even like each other!

...Perhaps it was best that Raven left now, clearly she was no longer (if ever) apart of this circle of fairytales if she had finally lost all understanding of the plot of the whole thing.

Funny how she went from an outcast amongst her own kind to an outcast amongst a strange culture that she no longer fit into or understood, it was as though somewhere along the way her Rebellion had scrubbed her clean on the inside of the last traces of her mother's influence.

"Raven?" Apple whispered.

"It hurts…" Raven whimpered into Apple's ear. "Te amo Apple White, te amo. Paeniteo, ambo te ignosce me; dimittite peccatum mihi contra te quia te amo. (I love you Apple White, I love you. Please forgive me; please forgive my sins against you for I love you.) My heart hurts, the future is scary."

"Hey, you're going to be just fine." Apple assured with a squeeze of her hands and arms. "You're the one who is always going on about the future so… do what you do best Raven and be strong and brave, everything will turn out, you'll see."

 _No my dear princess, it will be you who will be forced to see._ Raven thought as the front doors to the school were drawn open (a bit too dramatically for Raven's tastes but nonetheless she did not have the heart to take the mood of the moment away from the goat brothers by saying anything more than a polite thank you to their wide-eyed faces as she passed them) revealing the black and bronze carriage waiting patiently by the decorative fountain of the school's front drive.

Apple stopped dead in her tracks. "What are those-?" She pointed to the beasts harnessed to the carriage.

Raven cleared her throat awkwardly, and wetly, oh dear she was on the verge of tears again. "They're land-riding drakes… just think of them as emus with scales… and claws and blunt teeth and longer tails… and instead of grazing on the ground most of the time they stretch those long necks up to eat leaves off of trees, very efficient when you are riding along in the city streets and the only vegetation available are those little ornamental trees and hanging flower pots-"

"Why haven't I heard about these creatures?" Apple thankfully cut off Raven's nervous rambling before her voice warbled to sobbing territory.

"Probably because they are not native to Ever After." Maddie sniffed coolly, taking Raven's other arm and moving the witch forward.

"But where is she Giles? If we don't find her soon and put her in the carriage we are going to have to call her ailing father to tell him that we have lost his only daughter at such a crucial time!"

…Only for all of them to stop at the sound of the Headmaster's voice.

"Brother I'm pretty sure that there is no need to worry so much." Giles leaned to the side, peering around his older sibling's mass to stare at Raven and the curious crowd of students filing out of the school doors.

"That's because the Good King is always so nice to you! But when I'm on the line is he at all as understanding or respectful? Nooo, he plays mind games and quotes philosophy instead of answering direct questions! How am I supposed to know what a one-handed clap sounds like? Or what I'd think if all of reality just turned out to be a dream within a dream within a-… and if I have to hear one more insinuation about me getting up on the other side of the bed in life and putting on glittering slippers or that he suspects that I'm so hard on Miss Queen because the Evil Queen is actually _my illegitimate child_ and I'm trying to make up for one disappointment by trying to control the second generational proof of my inability to-"

"I take it that no one's bothered to inform you that I was holed up sick as a dog for most of the day in my own dorm!" Raven spoke up loudly, the lie sliding smoothly from her lips despite her cracked voice. "It was the last place anybody tried looking for me apparently."

The Headmaster startled, turning around, then startled again as all wide eyes of the student body crowding around the front of the school were suddenly, very keenly, trained on him.

"The Headmaster is Raven's-?" Blondie nearly exclaimed loud enough for the entire region to hear (though most likely anyone with a mirror-phone would hear of this considering the fact that she was speaking right into a live camera feed).

The Headmaster sputtered so Raven, for just this once, decided to take pity on the man.

"No he's not, my grandmother dumped him long before my mother was even a possibility." Raven called over her shoulder.

"Your grandmother and the Headmaster used to be an item?" Blondie continued on relentless, in the background Raven could hear lots of "eew"'s and "That explains a lot"'s from the growing crowd.

"I wasn't there so I don't know the full story." Raven shrugged looked more tired than before. "But I do know for a fact that I'm not related to him- Headmaster stop waving your arms around like that, I've seen the pictures, there's photographs of you two in a few of the yearbooks and in the estate's attic and mom told me herself that grandmother broke it off because you were a chaste limey little man who couldn't be buggered about any-."

"Now is not the time to bring up the past Miss Queen!" The Headmaster practically howled in embarrassment. "Miss Lockes put that camera away! Giles, stop laughing! It's not funny!"

By magic the tense, somber mood of a funeral procession dissipated.

Raven snorted quietly and rolled her eyes, well there went the big dramatic build up, disappearing in a puff of smoke and the Headmaster's frantic orders for Blondie to cease her assault of questions.

It was just as well really; dramatic endings were for fairytales, not for her.

In the ensuing chaos Raven turned to hug Apple, tight, sincere, and brief. Hardly dramatic or long enough to convey how Raven really felt but this was the real world now, so it would do.

"Te amo." Raven whispered low, cupping the shell of Apple's ear so that only the princess could hear, somehow to Raven's ears it sounded much better than a goodbye.

And then Raven let go, Maddie and Alistair swooping in on either side and rushing the witch into the carriage and away from Apple's call after them, it all happened so quickly that the Headmaster and most of the students in the crowd didn't even notice until the carriage door was closed and the drakes were racing away down the main path.


	6. Chapter 6

Apple had always found it rather odd how the people from Wonderland were never afraid of Raven, never hated her, never shunned her; they even made their own little attempts to instruct Raven about their culture and customs. All things considered it was both odd and should have been impossible, even by Wonderlands wacky standards, before Raven had left Apple had just assumed that they'd forgiven the girl for what her mother did and for what Raven was to become.

Of course Apple knew better now, knew that the Wonderlandians never had to forgive Raven of anything, the whole cursing and attempt to take over their world had never been Raven's fault so there was nothing to forgive. Wonderland may be insane but if you took the time to try to learn a bit about the culture you could see a method in the madness, their philosophies and their worldview was all about madness and it's many forms, and madness was precisely why they had been so accepting of Raven, or more accurately it was their understanding that Raven's mother had been suffering from an illness inside her head and that Raven had been dragged through the dirt as a result. They just could not help but pity her and what they saw as both Raven and her mother's wrongful suffering at the hands of Ever After's barbaric sense of justice.

And then Raven had brought Lizzie back home in time for her mother's birthday, saved them from an attempt on the queen's life, saved their world… reconnected them with other realms and spared them the fear of the cursed cloud looming overhead.

For that Wonderland owed Raven everything.

But Raven had asked for nothing in return, had been humble and had sincerely made it clear that she considered it her duty to repair her mothers mistakes and the things the woman had done in the haze of insanity since nobody else could, and thus such a responsibility was placed solely upon her shoulders, there was no other choice.

And that made them love her even more.

At the time it had merely been pretty words spoken without any meaning to Apple's ears, she had still been so certain, so excited and anticipating that Raven would turn evil and thus all of those pretty words would be pointless, the perfect betrayal and the perfect evil for Apple's story…

And it was horrible of her to want that, horrible of them all to so easily brush aside such an important opportunity to un-curse all the realms and act as though she had done nothing, she could have saved them all…

But Raven was born into a villain heritage so after a brief pat on the back Raven was shooed away and Apple-

Well Apple had gone and taken a great deal of the credit hadn't she? The fair princess convincing the evil selfish Rebel queen to save Wonderland and- hey Raven was the one to rip apart the Book of Legends not Apple, never mind that it had been Apple's idea in the first place… Apple had demanded praise and acknowledgement for being so fair, so levelheaded, _so_ _flipping perfect_! Surely a future Snow White in the making!

Then Raven had gained more support and popularity that what had ever been anticipated, Snow White had been sympathetic but she would have been so very disappointed and angry if things continued on as they were and Apple had lost sight of the bigger picture, leaving Raven to suffer in it's horrible aftermath.

And all Raven had asked for as she had gotten ill with stress and betrayal weighing heavily in her heart was a chance at making a happy life for herself as far as far away could get from fairytales as possible.

And the Wonderland was more than happy to deliver.

Apple had always thought of herself and Raven as ancestral enemies, Raven the evil party to compliment Apple's inherited good qualities, she used to believe that all fair maidens needed an enemy to be complete, just as her mother was more pure and fair all thanks to her having the perfect enemy to compliment her.

When Wonderland took Raven away, Apple quickly revised her earlier opinions on enemies.

Fairytales always had the fair maidens win out over their villainous enemies by being pure damsels and perfectly helpless. After the princess got her happily ever after then she didn't have to worry about a thing aside from keeping up her perfect personality for everything she ever desired would be provided.

Wonderland and the Rebel beast got offended by such antics and did not hesitate to prove to Apple that there was such a thing as making enemies that took advantage of such pathetic shows of attractive weakness.

And won. Brutally, unapologetically, and so cunningly that everything that Apple had ever been taught by her mother and by her classes had been utterly useless.

And once it had started Apple came to the sudden, cold realization that all this time Raven had been trying to protect her from this exact issue.

And Apple had just pushed away her one real ally and protector from the storm that would consume Apple and turn all of what she had once known on it's head.

XXX

"That was rather underwhelming." The Queen of Hearts mused while glancing out the back window behind Raven's head. "I was expecting there to be more to that departure, far more tears and long speeches to be certain. Perhaps even a confession that even _she_ would be able to understand." The woman gave Raven a knowing look.

"Did Lady Cheshire have enough time to tell you about my feelings for Apple while she was smuggling Lizzie in here, or was Lizzie the one to tell you your highness?" Raven sat back, tiredly giving a guilty looking Lizzie sitting across from her a _look_ , knowing that her frequent confessions to Apple over the course of the past hour would come back to bite her. The witch relaxed slightly when Chase Redford (thankfully wearing casual attire and not his bulky armor) busied himself by taking a thick quilt from the overhead compartment and securely tucking Raven into her seat.

"Actually my daughter warned me weeks ago when we first discovered Ever After's crimes against Wonderland that separating you from the one you loved would be the biggest challenge of all… I must admit that I am glad that we were wrong on that front." The Queen hummed while sipping her tea (the carriage being big enough to house a table between them and enough leg room for everybody).

"Your feelings for her were pretty obvious Raven." Lizzie informed delicately.

Raven settled into her quilt without a fuss. "She'd never want to settle for me anyway, I knew my feelings for her were doomed the second I figured out that I was in love with her. I tried to move on, and I was doing pretty well with that for a time, perhaps I could have found a way to dissipate the feelings entirely given enough time, but then things got dredged up all over again and what with my nightmares and finding out that Dexter wasn't interested in me when things got bad…" The witch trailed off with a wince, she didn't mean to make Dexter sound like a bad guy.

He wasn't a bad guy, or even a brave one, and while the former was perfectly all right… it was the latter that was the main issue. "I mean I understand that he liked me but it just wouldn't be fair if he was so frightened to be associated with me when times get tough that he goes off and hides… it wouldn't be fair to him at all." Raven trailed off, studiously ignoring Lizzie's snort and shared mouthing of "he was a coward" with her intrigued mother while Chase rolled his eyes and patted Raven's shoulder.

In Raven's situation with Dexter, Wonderlandians, as an active warrior culture, would hold different views on who was the real wronged party than what it would be in Ever After.

And Raven knew no matter how many times she tried to explain the cultural difference they'd never get it.

"Thank you for this." Raven felt it was best to say. "I'm afraid that my brain has been running in nothing but circles lately… I don't think that I could've found it in me to leave on my own."

"Or walk by yourself for that matter." Lizzie piped up.

Raven nodded. "That too, I wonder if anybody noticed that I was nearly ready to trip and fall onto my face several times back there."

"They did, half the whispers I heard while we were walking seemed to be wondering if perhaps you were the one to fall ill and not your father." Lizzie huffed, stirring her tea.

"Ha! _I am_ ill." Raven snorted. "That shouldn't have come as a big surprise."

"Well at least with that grand-save-for-that-end-bit spectacle you've given us enough time to launch our surprise counter attack before Ever After would be any the wiser." The Queen commented. "If we need more time perhaps we can leak that the despair that father and daughter feel over both of them being ill simultaneously… has made things worse for their conditions?"

Lizzie and Raven shared a frightened look.

"…They'd invade the palace." Raven whispered, her imagination going haywire.

The Queen burst out laughing. "Oh come now I know perfectly well that little plan wouldn't work- my dear daughter, you can stop giving me that startled as a bee look. I was merely joking, honest!"

"You haven't ever seen Apple White's determination when it comes to Raven mom." Lizzie replied shaken.

"She even went to the trouble of decorating and furnishing my half of the dorm with Evil Queen regalia and she bought me my own personal line of Evil Queen themed makeup and clothing." Raven recounted in a haunted tone.

"And used your toothbrush to brush her teeth for a whole semester…" Lizzie coughed before quickly assuring the horrified witch. "She's been doing a lot better lately though. Stopped with the toothbrush and looking at gothic and dark occult catalogues I mean…"

Raven still looked horrified. "I didn't even know about the last one!"

"Yeeeah… we all thought that was pretty gross too." Lizzie grimaced.

Raven looked an awful lot like a kicked puppy. "And by " _we"_ you mean-…"

"The other Royals? Yes, yes we knew Raven, we all knew, she told us everything." Lizzie sighed, like a doctor breaking some bad news to a patient. "I'm merely a still learning novice when it comes to understanding the ways of proper madness… But you've probably got more reason for those terrible nightmares aside from what happened at the Dragon Games… granted I'm just guessing."

"Oh goodie, more things to sort out with my brain." Raven grouched half-heartedly. Because as much as she'd come to care about Apple there was no way to ignore the fact that the princess was… more than a bit off in the head when it came to Raven… to an embarrassing and worrying degree. "I'm going to have to give Apple some indication that I'm alive or else she's… she might…"

"Come looking for you." Lizzie finished. "And we can't have that, not now, not with your involvement with us or with the state that your mind is currently in."

Raven didn't have the heart to argue, as it was her mind felt as though it was going to become unglued at any moment.

"Rest easy child, remember; the hardest part is over now the rest of this adventure for you is all up to time… and some liberal use of hair dye." The Queen of Hearts assured loftily, motioning Raven to rest on Chase's offered shoulder and get some sleep.

Too tired for anything else Raven did just as she was told.

It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but for the first time in a long while Raven slept soundly.

XXX

A few months later…

 _Standing invisible in front of you_

 _My darling, my friend, my love, my traitor_

 _I stand unseen in front of you_

 _I am here, I am real, but you do not see me_

 _I smile and you smile back, but you do not recognize me_

 _The pain in my heart, the heart that you had torn is unbearable_

 _I am scared, I should turn away but I must know_

 _I speak to you with innocence and ignorance._

 _You laugh at my jokes, politely nod at my words, but you still do not see me_

 _You ask for my name._

 _I tell you a name that is both my name because I adopted it for this face_

 _I tell you a name that is also not my name given at my birth._

 _I spin stories around you, a carefully woven blanket of illusions and falsities held up by a latticework of truths, under my tent you stand uncomprehending and unseeing, you who I once called me friend, the false words and false smile upon my lips hide the man behind the pleasant mask, broken and crying upon the floor._

 _It is ironic I should think that being with you for so long had taught me how to make a pretty lie look so true._

 _I love you my traitor, I will never harm you, I will live this new life of lies until the false words of this story become true, you will go your way and I mine._

 _You are searching for me._

 _You long to find me._

 _Perhaps to hurt me once again._

 _Perhaps to make amends and be my friend._

 _Perhaps to be my lover and make all the pain burn away in a blazing glory._

 _Or perhaps your intention is to declare war formerly._

 _You were always a mystery to me._

 _I love you, I love you, I love you, so I shall smile and spin my story of lies, for a war would surely destroy us both, becoming my lover is nothing but an impossible pathetic hope on my tattered dreams, to become my friend again would only lead to trouble, and I most surely suspect that you would end up hurting me again in the end no matter what the option._

 _You will continue searching for me._

 _Until you stop._

 _I will be standing right here, in plain sight._

 _I will be standing right in front of you and you will never see me._

 _You will go your way._

 _I will go mine._

 _My darling, my friend, my love, my traitor._

 _I will be standing invisible in front of you._

~ _Hraban Wiess- original composition; Professor of Foreign and Cruel Writing from the White Queen's Royal University; from the century of the 5_ _th_ _Blue Blood, and the third year of the bloodless arrow._

Raven looked up from the parchment, casting her oldest friend a disbelieving look.

Coming home had been both the best and hardest thing that Raven had ever had to do in her life; her father had welcomed her back with warmly open arms and a joyful palace staff who all congratulated her on being so brave with her Rebel cause and set to immediate work with trying to make Raven feel safe enough and supported enough so that she could begin to piece her mind back together again.

Raven's mind and body seemed to relish being back, it was like coming inside a hearth warmed cottage with supper all ready and laid out beside a pile of clean dry house clothes and a good book to read in your favorite comfortable chair after spending hours walking in a violent storm. It was utterly fantastic and never before had Raven ever felt so free!

However her heart was still broken, for as nice as her new life was it did not replace the fact that Raven felt as though she had left someone out in the storm, several someone's actually.

That was part of the deal though, Raven gets her freedom and her happy new beginning, but at the price of never seeing her old friends from school aside from the ones hailing from Wonderland.

One of the biggest things that she had to leave behind for good being Apple White, her former roommate, the girl she fell in love with, and tentative best friend.

"I just wanted you to know that you aren't the first to be doing this so you aren't at all alone in the world." Maddie informed both warmly and primly. "You have to admit that his decision and yours are rather similar."

Raven sits up in bed, grabbing a lock of her newly blonde hair and holding it up in front of her face (and isn't that enough to startle her every flipping time she walks in front of a mirror to see some strange blonde girl in her room for a panicky few seconds before she remembers that the blonde girl is _her_ , _she's_ the one who had dyed it from black to blonde, and that she really has to get used to this because if she jumps every single time a reflective surface crosses her path somebody is going to suspect something!).

"You only get that good at Ever After standard and make attempts to cheer me up with obscure bits of Wonderlandian literature when you are about to tell me some bad news." Raven sighs. "Alright how bad is it?"

"Apple found out that your dad dropped you out of Ever After High and that you tested out of high school with a degree from Beanstalk High over the summer, which led to her to trying to find out why you didn't tell her, which led to her finding out that your phone and the rest of your mirror-net connections have been erased and that the paper letters you've been sending her have no return address, which led to her finding out that you formally abdicated your mother from the throne, which led her to freaking out, which led to her storming into the Headmaster's office, which led to him denying and avoiding answering her, which led her to calling up her mom, which led to everybody finding out that the Queen and King realms have combined under one semi-democratic government and believing that one faked document we purposefully left lying around for Snow White's spies to find that states that you have given yourself up to some priestess monastery in the middle of nowhere, which led to your father hastily submitting a paper stating that your kingdom was formally seceding from it's fairytale obligations whether people liked it or not and sent out a long list of legal violations that he'd submit against Ever After High if they ever pursued the issue and I quote; _"Put my daughter's life in danger as well as the wellbeing of the innocent people I rule over, all for the bloody sake of popularity points, letting a certifiably insane woman out of prison in order to revive some idiotic childish rivalry along with attempting to politically blacklist trade relations with this realm so that the queen can get more money, a school administrator constantly and inappropriately harassing my daughter, constant and yet-to-be explained incidents where my daughter was put into life or death situations, legally blocking her from freeing other worlds from my wife's curses, and while I am at it I'd like to know why my certifiably insane wife is in prison when by Ever After law she needs to be in an asylum with doctors and people who can help her through her insanity and why exactly is a dangerous murderous felon locked up in a school full of children in the first place?"_ Which led to everybody freaking out, Kitty and Lizzie howling in hysterics, lots of Royals looking shamefaced or livid, lots of Rebels being super mad at Apple and the Headmaster, lots of parents finding the courage to ask the same questions and getting behind the lawsuit threat, all the people who are in the know about what is really going on cooking up popcorn and watching everyone else, and the queen positively loosing it for like five minutes in public."

Raven made an absolutely pathetic sound under the assault of words before she promptly hid under her covers.

Maddie patted Raven's covered hip in sympathy.

"The good news is that most Rebels are sympathetic about you leaving school, apparently a lot of people were thinking that it was just a matter of time before you got fed up with it all, and Bunny snuck by and showed your mom the video clip of Snow White losing it, apparently she laughed so hard she fell to the floor, she says that she is so proud of both you and the Good King for cutting off the enemy at their feet… even though she still hopes that you will one day surprise attack everybody and follow her footsteps, but she's pretty content with this though."

"My mother is insane!" Raven barked helplessly from under the blankets. "Is there any other good news that is… well…?"

"A little bit more right-side up?" Maddie finished, the lump of cloth nodded pitifully. "No one is questioning you leaving school two months early before summer vacation, they all still believe that your father genuinely got sick, and everyone is assuming that this was all a last minute decision, and that thing Apple has been planning on and off all summer to try to get you to come back to school or follow destiny has now officially been thrown to the side with the crocodile pit. Can't convince you to poison her if she can't find you~." The mad girl giggled, reminding Raven that Maddie never really warmed up to Apple.

The lump of cloth sighed before collapsing into the witch's lap as she revealed herself.

"I had hoped that seeing who my mother really was would have scared that hope from Apple." The witch sighed again. "Why does she keep relapsing into believing that she could force me to become the next Evil Queen? Even after all we've been through it's like every few weeks she goes back to…"

The witch stops herself, shaking her head firmly. "I have to stop focusing on that question. I'll probably never know and… I'm guessing that the timetable has been moved up?"

Maddie nodded. "Papa and I have already moved back home, Bunny is the only native from the Alice in Wonderland story who is staying at the school, all of your closest friends and allies are keeping both eyes and a third on everything… now all that there is left for you to do is to come up with a new name for yourself before people start demanding an heir for your father's throne before we are ready, I thought that I'd help cheer you up so I gave you a poem and an idea."

"An idea?" Raven blinked looking back down to the parchment in her hands. Examining it for a clue to her friend's riddle.

"…Hraban… why does that sound familiar?"

"The professor spent a lot of time in your realm to study it's words and stories, his birth name used to be Lannie White McBird, it is believed that he had been very impressed with the Evil Queen at the time, even though he never met her he did so enjoy her hobby with breeding more intelligent ravens for the castle grounds." Maddie informed cryptically.

Raven furrowed her brows in concentration. "Hraban… hey doesn't that mean "raven" in the old language- oh you already knew that… isn't it a bit… obvious though?"

Maddie grinned. "Hidden in plain sight Raven~."

"Ah, I see." Raven nodded. "That does make sense."

XXX

The announcement went out to all the realms; the newest heir to the newly dubbed _Lands of the Witch Kings_ was to be introduced to the people and high society in three days.

Three days! How inconvenient! Or perhaps how very convenient, for in three days Snow White was scheduled to come to the school for the very first Dragon Games of the year, and then there was the first school dance of the year the day after that… it took days to travel to Raven's father's kingdom, and even through Wonderland and the mirrors it would take a while.

No way to sneak off to catch a good look at this supposed "newest heir", who was apparently a cousin of Raven's… or something, the card did not say and all the news feeds in that region were all in another language so… but it was odd wasn't it? That the witch had never mentioned that this girl had existed before and-…

"What kind of name is Her- Hr-… Hr-a-ban Kon-i-gin-King? _Who_ is this?" Apple demanded to the air and the old books she was attempting to use to help her translate with while squinting down at the foreign newspaper she had "borrowed" (swiped with the intent of sneaking it back) from Bunny Blanc's book bag.

XXX

"Hraban Konigin-King?" The Evil Queen blinked at Bunny and the mirror-pad the girl was holding with her daughter on mirror-chat (and good gods what has Raven done to her hair?). "Isn't that a bit on the nose sweetie? I mean anybody who knows the language would be able to see that it just translates to Raven Queen-King."

"To the people of the kingdom it's obvious, even to be seen as an outstanding joke, but mom… Snow White doesn't speak the old language, she and her people have never had to learn it, it's been days now since it's been announced and nobody from Ever After has seemed to have caught on."

The Evil Queen blinked in surprise. "They haven't?"

"It's true." Bunny piped up meekly. "We keep leaving behind false clues for Snow White's people to find that keep giving them the impression that Raven has been secured off to somewhere else, they aren't looking directly _at_ Raven, nobody even recognizes her without the dark clothes and the hair."

"They haven't figured it out? Not at all? And it's been days?" And suddenly the Evil queen has doubled over and is laughing and laughing as if she was trying to catch up on all the laughter she'd missed over the past few years.

XXX

The nightmares have long since disappeared during the course of the summer.

Raven is grateful for this, the much-needed rest the past few months have brought her prospective and clarity of mind, both things that she desperately needs as she eases into her new responsibilities. She still misses what she had left behind terribly but with the weight of all the bad things that had happened to her while she was at school having been lifted Raven is forced to sadly admit that she feels much safer and thus is indeed happier here than she ever was there.

The only downside was how bittersweet her broken heart still ached at the mere thought of the most misguided fair princess in all the world, her once dearest fair, literal storybook princess who would never be capable of loving her for more than a mere tool, no matter how much Raven desired otherwise…

Blonde hair, brown contacts (that gave her eyes more of a reddish hue but whatever), underneath the symbolic ceremonial blue pigment for the blue-blooded future king was very light yellow and sienna colored makeup on her eyelids and lips, black fitted pants and a plain white, man's peasant shirt, and the simplest copper and amber circlet crown adorning Raven's head that the witch had ever seen.

She looked more like a young witch ready for a casual night at the local tavern or coven circle than a newly inducted crowned prince, even the coronation ceremony was a simple, quick affair, with the high priestess simply anointing Raven's forehead and the left side of her face, neck, and shoulder with symbols in blue pigment before her father placed the circlet on her head and escorted her to the throne beside his, the Wonderland interpreter translating for him as he declared in his native tongue her the crown prince, his heir and successor to the cheering crowd of notably non-fairytale- save for the ecstatic Wonderlandians- nobles and influential citizens from all over the newly dubbed Lands of the Witch Kings and-once again- from Wonderland, and they even had some creatures from a dimension that Raven had never even heard about as well, and ordered the sharing of music, beer, and tea to commence immediately in order to fully welcome in _his daughter_ and heir into a hopefully long and prosperous reign!

And that had been that, something that had seemed so impossible a few months ago had turned out really that simple.

Between the usual passions often attributed to her father's people, and the Wonderlandians helping to get things really swinging, it was quite the party, if Raven managed not to make too much of a fool of herself then it would be something good and hopeful that would be talked about for years to come in the newly unified country that was oddly divided by a large expanse of geography, but unified nonetheless.

If things worked out between the transporting powers of Wonderland magic and this newly discovered _mad science_ from her father's interested foreign friends geography would very soon be a very minor detail easily forgotten.

And boy hadn't _that_ been a lesson! All the new possibilities presented to her and her father as prospective nobles and influential entrepreneurs introducing themselves and what new innovation or idea that they hoped to help fund and introduce with the support of the crown backing them up made Raven almost dizzy with all the possibilities, and the creatures that had come up to them from the new dimension! Vampires, werewolves, zombies, and more witches with skin tones that Raven had never imagined possible! To think, monsters were real, and they bowed and curtsied and acted like… well ordinary people in the face of strange royalty really, Raven felt kind of guilty that some of them seemed so shy to ask her questions about the fairytale traditions that she had escaped from, most seemed downright horrified at the treatment of "fellow ghouls" such as Raven and the other witches, werewolves, and other creatures that tended to be labeled as " _villains"_ in her old school and were very sympathetic to Raven's need to Rebel from it all.

By the way that they had all spoken it really made Ever After and fairytales as a whole seem… incredibly barbaric, not to mention highly racist once the big picture was placed into prospective.

To a teenaged werewolf girl named Clawdeen that had come as one of Lady Cleo De Nile's entourage (the girl in question flattered Raven heavily and stated that _the sisters_ and several other former fairytales that had ran away from Ever After to her home dimension back when Raven's mom was in school (and long before then even) said that they had asked her to convey their thanks in this historic step towards freedom and hoped that one day they'd be able to come back to visit Raven's kingdom when it was safe enough, and that they always keep close eyes on the biggest news from here and they, as well as Lady Cleo and her royal family, hoped Raven only the best for future prosperity and trade between their dimensions… so that had answered the question towards where all the (surprisingly polite and sweetly mannered) monsters came from) Raven had asked if werewolves were free to marry and have children with humans.

"Do ya mean… they ain't allowed here?" Miss Clawdeen asked with a raised brow.

Raven sighed thinking about Cerise and her sister. "They have to keep themselves hidden, _especially_ if they are in fairytales, many live in fear of banishment for merely loving someone that is not of their own kind." Raven explained, still extremely surprised that these people spoke accented versions of Ever After standard (who had time to teach them?). "As a newly freed realm from fairytale laws I'd like to encourage a message that the crown supports such couples and if I have any say in it I'd like to see a day where they need not fear falling in love and creating families in the lands under my and my father's rule. Eventually I'd like to extend the same offer to those of your home dimension, many had no choice but to leave in the wake of the late Evil Queen's insanity and the political ostracizing of my people… of _witches_ from my homeland. My father's influence has barely managed to save those who had no choice but to stay from a very terrible fate, however it would help things if we worked to make tis a safe place and bring in immigrants to both raise the population and introduce new, revolutionizing ideas to bring back the standard of living as well as the old sense of feeling safe to live here without fear of backlash from the "good" kingdoms. I desire for this to be a safe, open-minded kingdom for others to turn to with at the very least a better chance at creating a proper life for themselves… that is if your people would be willing, I'm not going to be as naïve as to believe that it's going to be easy-"

"It don't have to be easy as long as you support it and people are brave enough to do it sistah." Miss Clawdeen swore passionately. "Trust me; you and your government keep yer end of the bargain with your support and people will come, they will come for the hope and the opportunity not offered anywhere else in those fool-crazy fancy realms and soon enough those fool haters will wonder why they ever doubted you this place will be goovin' so hard with sheer awesomeness all up in their grills!"

"Er… what I was going to say as well… except maybe more elegantly put…" Lady De Nile cast her friend a warning look.

But Raven was grinning right back at the group, a renewed determination lighting in her chest. Catching the eye of Maddie, who was standing beside Raven's throne as one of Wonderland's official representatives (while drinking real Wonderlandian tea, the good stuff and not the drivel that was up to Ever After's usual tastes), her oldest friend seemed to have caught onto what the witch was thinking and grinned back.

Raven may not be able to see most of her Rebel friends anytime soon (if ever) but that did not mean that she couldn't still give them support and a helping hand in her own little ways.


	7. Chapter 7

Things were difficult enough with Raven being gone this year and Raven's father starting trouble with that lawsuit threat against the school, bringing to light the rather disturbing fact that the adults had been Rebelling from tradition as well, and what was worse was that Kitty's angered speech the previous year, revealing the cause and the content of Raven's nightmares, still rang fresh in the minds of the Rebel faction, making the beginning of the school year very shaky and uncertain between Apple and the steadily growing Rebel group.

Raven still sent her letters but they never had any content that had any hints or clues towards Raven's whereabouts or what kind of life she was leading now, it was, at the time, lots of words surrounding around nothing as far as Apple had been concerned, it was all a bunch of old translated documents of some stuffy ancient rulers before fairytales and what they did in their boring histories that was not relevant to Apple because it was all before the fairytales had started, often accompanied by some ad or propaganda produced by that Hraban girl and how Raven was _sooo hopeful_ that things would work out with the new girl on the throne.

And really how could Raven possibly be glad about even half of the things that Hraban girl was doing-… well… okay, maybe Apple could see Why Raven would support stuff like werewolves and humans having rights to marry each other, and bringing in new, completely radical and crazy stuff like this "mad science" in to hopefully "better" the lives of the common people, but then again Raven was always looking at the nearest scandalous thing to come across her path and dub it "good" or "it should be allowed on principle" just because it clashed with tradition and all the rules that were there for a reason… even if Apple couldn't name that reason no matter how many times Raven challenged her to name one that didn't sound utterly stupid to the other girl's ears… but people still made up the rules and therefore they should always be followed!

Apple had been so sure of that… until it all came crashing down onto her head.

The Rebels on the other hand loved it, ate it up like nobody's business and because they were so firm with their liking most things that came out of Raven's _former kingdom_ (for what it was now was a non-fairytale mess! Apple had been assured by her enraged mother) that their parents started supporting what was going on too and some started making steps to change policies in their kingdoms as well!

It got to the point to where Apple just could not look at what Raven sent her without going cross-eyed angry at how Raven was supporting this Hraban girl making a mess out of everything! And Apple had to focus now more than ever on finding a way to become Snow White along with trying to find a legal way to force the Good King to bring Raven back so reading about pre-fairytale rulers was just not in Apple's schedule.

So Apple had stopped reading the letters, she still kept them because Raven had given them to her but… she just couldn't go on reading them, not when it seemed like Raven had just … given up so readily! Gave up the Rebels, gave up her throne… gave up on Apple…

Apple knew that she needed to make it up to Raven somehow, make things better again, that they needed to resolve lots of issues left unspoken between them for far too long…

Apple wasn't going to kid herself by thinking that it would be easy or even that she'd manage to accomplish anything in what little time she had at high school before she graduated… but one day she was going to find Raven, and they would talk, they would cry, they'd even argue but… they'd say everything that needed to be said, lay it all out into the open and they'd try to find a new common ground.

Maybe?

Or maybe Raven just pitied her by sending her letters with stuff just to show that she was still alive and well or something, and there was not anything Apple could do to fix things.

Things had been bad at the beginning of the New Year but then the Wonderlandians had stealthily struck Snow White with evidence so damning that what little bit of familiar ground that Apple was holding onto crumbled under her fingers.

Later Apple would regret not taking what Raven had put in her letters more seriously.

XXX

"Why do you keep sending Apple letters about strategies former rulers used to navigate great turmoil and establish peace during trying times if you know that she doesn't even open them anymore?" Lizzie kindly demands one day in the Queen of Heart's castle library. "Bunny reports that Apple has even gotten so out of sorts with the whole campaign to integrate monsters into your kingdom as ordinary people that she was pacing the halls for a good solid hour."

"She'll get over the monster thing, after all she bribed the RA and convinced the Headmaster to switch my room arrangements so that I, one of those very same "scary" monsters could live with her last year! And… Maybe she'll see the meaning behind why I am sending her copies of old history texts and philosophies and… admittedly maybe she won't but it would be just too cruel of me if I didn't do a little something to prepare her for a world where fairytales aren't the only answer… that and I've run out of things to write to her about since most of it would have to be a lie." Raven sighed while closing a tome about the virtues of patience and keeping a open mind while traveling alone through the mountains of spirals (And there was more than a few tips on self-defense because you didn't travel alone in Wonderland at night unless you were the one more dangerous than anything else).

Lizzie was silent for a moment, studying Raven. "I feel bad about how this is going to hurt Apple too you know, she was my friend… but my world cannot afford me letting that get in the way of what has to be done… and Apple would never understand why us going against her mother so brutally, or why we are still so angry at her for letting your mother free even though she had apologized… she's never going to understand why that wasn't enough to make everything okay again Raven… you do understand this don't you? That you are putting so much effort to talking sense into a deaf ear of someone who refuses to look outside of the four walls of her self-made prison… there is always hope that she will see the open door and realize that there is a world of more important things but… Raven… as your friend and your ally I urge you to prepare yourself for the worse, you have to consider the possibility that Apple very well one day try to hurt you intentionally for not becoming the toy that she had always wanted."

Raven inhaled deeply and held it for a long moment before letting out a heavy gust of breath, the reference of the nightmares that once plagued her constantly not going over the witch's head. "You aren't pulling your punches with that theory, didn't you say that Apple was your friend?"

"Was being the key word." Lizzie closed her eyes as if she was in pain. "She was my friend back when she and I were equals, back when she had showed such promise to become a great future ruler."

"But then she let my mother free." Raven finished.

"She nearly had us all killed all because she couldn't bear the thought of you becoming her equal in becoming a good ruler yourself, she and her mother played with our lives and tried to actively soil your hard earned reputation for being good just because they wanted validation to be better than everybody else, they needed a villain to make them look better… and then your father came to us and we had discovered that in reality… Snow White is the far worse evil, not your mother… and Raven… I fear that Apple isn't too far behind her. I just- we don't want to see you get hurt on both a personal level and on a professional one. I'm not saying that you have to stop the letters but- you might want to if Apple isn't even going to listen to what you are trying to say, to keep yourself safe from her… and to move on."

Raven looked down. "She really does hate me doesn't she?" The witch whispered. "I've been nothing but one big disappointment to her and she could never see-… but I love her Lizzie! How could I just abandon her?"

"Because a healthy love requires trust and understanding, be it friendship or romantic." Lizzie pointed out. "If you can honestly tell me that you had either with Apple then I will leave you alone about it."

Raven's lip wobbled and she hung her head in grief.

"My mother and your father had decided to leak the information we have gathered against Snow White to the Wonderland populace and the right people in your world a few hours ago, my mother and your father request that you get ready to make a public appearance with the rest of the characters from the tale of Alice in Wonderland in three hours to show a united from to the outraged people in the streets. Oh, and we've received letters back from the Royal faction's villains, they are all eager to take the test that you have created in order for one of their families to take up the right to become Apple's next villain." Lizzie continues dispassionately, making to leave. "Perhaps if you still feel obligated to write her letters then maybe you should try more of a direct approach… Apple never had a head for subtlety if you will recall."

Raven stared unseeingly at the table long after the other girl had left.


	8. Chapter 8

It was horrible, unthinkable; Raven felt that she'd never be the same again.

Raven hadn't ever asked her father or the Wonderlandians exactly what horrible things that they had found out about Snow White, after one is practically chased out of their second home (if the school could have ever been described as a home) and framed for arson all for the sake of her crime of being a little bit more popular than their roommate… hearing that Snow White was up to worse things didn't exactly come as a shock.

The exact details of the bad things the queen had been planning however was a shock, Raven may or may not have given into the urge to hide under her bed for a few hours after the announcements came on the news and began circling around over and over again.

Lizzie had been right; Snow White really was worse than her mother ever was in ways that… well all that her mother had done was steal the Evil Fairy's story and put scary curse clouds up high in the air, evil villain things that went too far sure but… she never actually- to Raven's knowledge at least- killed anybody _directly_ due to her actions, indirectly yes she had killed (though that was debatable now that this little bit of information came to light) but she had sought to conquer, which kind of needed people to _stay alive_ to both fear and serve under her.

It was more than just the queen knowing that Raven had been the key to make everything better or that she had also known that the quarantine's burst of magic would harm lots of people if enacted too soon before the right troops could come in to ensure everybody's safety but she still ignored that…

That was bad but it got much, much worse.

She- Snow White had actually… actively _driven_ Raven's mother to it, used the Evil Queen's insanity to… manipulate her, Raven's mother may have done the dirty work but Snow White… Snow White had planned it, had maliciously aimed to make Raven's mother think that it was the only way to finally end their rivalry and prove once and for all that the Evil Queen was better- deserved to be recognized as more than just a tool to be cast aside and forced to live a living hell because her rival was still alive to harass her.

She had known all along that the Evil Queen suffered from mental illness (a mental condition that the Evil Queen had tried to hide with mixed success all her life, it didn't make her bad, it just… made her extremely confused with how to balance being evil and being a villain since… well there were so many definitions it was difficult for even Raven to keep track), and so she used it to her greatest advantage.

Letters filled with hate, public shaming's, hiring people to do bad things or create big catastrophes to blame on the Evil Queen (confusing the woman in the process because she could have sworn that she hadn't left the estate that day and yet here was all this evidence saying that she did), always finding where the Evil Queen was and reminding her that no place was ever safe or that it was never going to be over (never good enough, too weak, too stupid, too good, easily forgettable).

That kind of harassment was only the very beginning to an elaborate and well executed plan to tip Raven's mother over the edge… that or Snow White just really liked having the Evil Queen around as a punching bag but that wasn't how the Wonderlandians were phrasing it, not with how the evidence could be interpreted and linked towards every bad thing that the Evil Queen _actually_ did (and not the things that Snow White merely fabricated) following soon after Snow White saying things like; about how the Evil Fairy was better at villainy or how the Evil Queen couldn't rule anything, let alone her own kingdom, and repeated constantly over and over again.

Raven's father had known about some of it while it was happening, but Snow White had been too powerful and well liked at the time and he feared for his daughter's future if he dared spoke out, turns out he had been waiting all along for an incident where Snow White's reputation would slip just enough for him to strike, and Snow White allowing a criminal to play with other ruler's children had done the trick.

The timing had been cruelly perfect; Snow White had been at her height condemning the Good King and his heir for taking away Raven from her destiny and for supporting radical changes in their country that went against everything that has been established as the " _proper and correct_ " means of running a kingdom for centuries, bad talking them right, left, and center, even going so far as to declare Raven's father as an unfit parent along with mercilessly using the Evil Queen as an example of what happens when such a horrible man gets into the mind of a perfect villain and drives her crazy, and she urged Wonderland and the other alumni of the school to abandon him and his dangerous ways immediately, electing to stage a vote from all the kingdoms- _of the maidens and heroes since villains as a rule would naturally agree with the Good King in his "villainy"_ \- to force him to step down.

This naturally angered the villain community who were excited for the chance to add the honor of one of their children gaining the Evil Queen title for their own family and they, predictably, threatened to cause mayhem, which only emboldened Snow White even more.

So when the day before the vote was supposed to take place at the school, Snow White and a few of her closest allies got the shock of their lives when a few things that they did not want to have publically known were… suddenly widely known by breakfast that morning, by everybody and with colorful charts and easy to read words showing all the evidence and everything just… out there, for everybody to know.

The vote was, not surprisingly, promptly canceled.

But Wonderland was far from done with having it's revenge, they kept things held back only to suddenly "newly discover" them every few weeks or whenever it looked like Snow White was gaining back the upper hand, sending her prized popularity poles plummeting to record all-time low levels. The spies sent inside Snow White's very home and inner circle finding interesting bits and pieces here and there about the queen's attempts to gain back ground… _through questionable_ _means_ and orchestrating that information to be leaked out in a way that it took a long time for Snow White to even suspect that she had spies hidden in her own court and palace.

It was ruthless, brutal, and Raven could barely stomach to hear about it at all.

But even she and her morals had to admit that it was… sadly necessary. Cruel yes but… necessary.

Because, to Raven's complete surprise and horror, plans had been placed into motion to target Raven specifically, right before graduation. It was all going to start happening to her, just as it had happened to her mother. Worse than what happened to her mother if some of the news stories were to be believed.

And Apple was supposed to be poised to start, everything was already planned out and ready for Apple to begin. With Snow White in the background, the ever-present power behind the throne.

And it was never going to stop.

Raven felt torn.

She should feel so very angry at Apple, she knew she should, Apple was one of the smartest people she knew, there was no way that she'd be so blind to Raven's hurt feelings or to Snow White blatantly crossing big fat red lines!

But then again Snow White was Apple's mother and if Raven had learned anything about Apple it was that her fear (nourished by mentioned mother no doubt) of an uncertain future was far greater than any proof or tears that Raven would lay bare (not that Raven ever fully cried in front of Apple save for that final day, no, that was Apple's trick, Apple could cry and it could be used to her advantage for the entire world save for Raven seemed to drop what they were doing to either glare Raven down for daring not to give the princess what she wanted or to make Apple feel better with loads of sympathy, and Raven was never too keen in exposing so much of herself, mostly because whenever she cried in the past over anything she was sneered at or people would shift around awkwardly, asking when she was going to stop being so embarrassing).

Maddie had humored her in her very dignified pacing of the palace halls as she weighed her options as if the entire fate of the world rested upon choosing the right one, Alistair being kind enough to join her, he was worried about Bunny and the last time they had talked she had snipped at him for doubting her abilities for being a proper spy as well as being so darn over protective, so he had more than a bit to walk to and fro about as well

The palace staff thinks that it's adorable and make sure to set out two pairs of running shoes for both teens every morning for the few days that they are in their funk (Maddie somehow managed to sneak tiny step trackers clipped onto their shoelaces and is running a well-meaning betting pool amongst the staff to see how many laps around the palace they take that day).

Raven and Alistair are so caught up in their own personal turmoil that both manage to miss the sudden change in mood between Raven's father, the Queen of Hearts and Lizzie, the Good King being oddly mournful and quiet and Lizzie skirting on the edge of actually arguing with her own mother about something very important.

It takes about a week of this before Kitty gets fed up and goes to see what she could do to break everybody out of acting in ways that were getting on her nerves.

So when Kitty finds the old photograph and the letters she spends a good solid moment swearing very creatively after seeing the first and then is almost yelling at the wrinkled love letters as she reads through them before she seeks Raven out, showing the startled witch the evidence the second she appears in Raven's path hissing and twitching all the way.

"Stop sending her letters, shit has gotten way too real for you to play the guilty party any longer." Kitty spat and disappeared, leaving Alistair to keep Raven upright as she chokes on air at who she sees in the picture.

In the end Raven does write one more letter to Apple, making an executive decision in her father's place who had been trapped between seeking justice and respecting his late wife's privacy and settling the almost-argument between Lizzie and the Queen of Hearts, Lizzie arguing that some tact and the privacy of the Evil Queen had to be considered and the Queen of Hearts being firm in believing that they had to be nothing but even more ruthless in the face of this new evidence.

Apple would read this one Raven was confident of it.

Weeks later Raven still found herself itching to send some form of support or apology to Apple, this would hurt her more than it would Raven, and Raven hated it when Apple was hurt or scared, hated the thought of the princess being left all by herself.

And yet…

Raven cleared off her chamber's writing desk, putting a large plush dog bed on top of it and shoved it under the tall window that caught the warmest rays of sun, and ceased sending Apple letters when Kitty and the palace cats took it over as one of their preferred napping spots.

XXX

Apple was furious.

Had been so very angry these past few months like she had never been before.

And so very, very hurt.

She didn't know whether to blame herself or to blame Raven.

And it was ripping her in two.

It was lies! All lies! It had to be! Snow White was the fairest character of them all! How could they possibly think that-?

But the evidence…

Damn the evidence! She was born to be the fairest of them all just like you were born to become the fairest of them all, she is your mother and she can do no wrong! Fair maidens in fairytales can never do wrong!

The Rebels don't believe that, neither does the Headmaster, he's distanced himself from the queen, while still in her own country.

And he will pay for doing so! They will all pay for doubting Snow White, for doubting me! Raven will pay for-!

But she's not even on the throne! I don't know where she is at all! Let alone how she is involved in all of this, she'd never hurt me-!

She hurt me on Legacy Day! She rebelled and refused to bow down to destiny! She is evil! She was born to be a horrible person; I should have never been so lenient with her from the very beginning! I should have forced her somehow-!

But fair princesses are supposed to be kind and understanding! That would have hurt Raven-!

"Yeah well I'm hurting and that's more important! I'm the fairest of them all! The most perfect, the most important fairytale character ever! I will force them all to see! They will pay for ever daring opposing-!"

"Oh now how can I claim to be fair and good if I'm starting to sound like an Evil Queen!"

"Raven's just jealous that I'm better than her!"

"How could I possibly claim to be better than her when I hurt her to the point to where he pulled her out of school just so that he could protect her from me!"

"I apologized! Wasn't that enough?"

"No! I saw how ill she became! She was terrorized to be around me! Being near me made her health worsen to the point to where she couldn't recognize me!"

"Oh she recognized me alright! Screamed her head off because she knew there was no escape from me-!"

"Yes! That is exactly why she was so afraid to be near me! I wouldn't let her breathe! I had boxed her in like she was a piece of jewelry!"

"She _is_ but an accessory! Mom said so herself that the Evil Queen's only roll in the world is to prove to everybody that Snow White is the fairest! Without me she is nothing! Nothing! She should be grateful that I paid her any mind at all!

"She didn't even want to be anywhere near me! I forced her to become my roommate! Oh my gosh I even used her toothbrush for a whole semester!"

"Ew." Said Bunny making a face as she watched Apple pace around her dorm room, talking to herself.

"Exactly! And I also slept in her bed while she was away at one of her sleepovers with Maddie and I changed her class schedule for the first and second semesters so that we'd have the same classes!"

"You were her stalker?" Bunny groaned in surprised disgust.

"She's the one who wanted to tryout maiden courses! Serves her right to be stuck taking those for the horrible three weeks I had to spend taking villain classes!"

"But she also wanted to switch to the hero and godmother tracks because she liked those classes, I snuck behind her back and changed is so that she'd have to take my maiden classes as well as stay with the villain track! I told her that the Headmaster wasn't allowing her to take what she wanted!"

"You did _what_?" Bunny choked.

"It was for her own good!"

"No it wasn't!"

"You are a horrible person!" Bunny scolded severely, flapping the envelope in her hand in a stern manner. "You should feel ashamed of yourself! No wonder Raven had so many nightmares about you!"

"I knoooow!" Apple sobbed, falling to her knees. "I was horrible to her!"

"I was merely bestowing her the honor of my attention! She should have been grateful for it! She was so lonely before me!"

"She was lonely _because_ of you." Bunny crossed her arms. "Maddie says that you could have been kind to her and helped use your influence to keep the bullies off of her back and you could have integrated her into your circle of friends but instead you tried to isolate her further. You really hurt her feelings you know."

"I'm _horrible_! I never stopped to consider that she had _feeeeeelings_!"

"And now she has turned evil and is taking her problems out on me! This was not my fault I am the fairest of them all! I am exempt from all wrongdoing by my birthright!"

"No you're not Apple." Bunny glares at the princess.

"The Rebels say that I'm not!" Apple wails to the ceiling.

Bunny purses her lips. "I'm not a Rebel, I just don't agree with you or your bottom line."

"The Royals have turned against me!"

"Many Royals were never with you. I was never on your side; Wonderland has different rules for fairytales than Ever After does." Bunny's bow begins to tick in annoyance.

"Bunny never was on my side- wait, why do I hear Bunny's voice in my head?"

Bunny closed her eyes and took a moment to resist just letting Apple keep conversing with herself and… herself. "…Maybe I should leave; I had promised Raven that I'd personally deliver this letter explaining why she hasn't tried to stop her father or the Queen of Hearts from taking revenge on your mother- they are the ones who have a problem with you by the way, Raven has nothing to do with it- and hopefully get you to actually understand everything but since you've obviously developed an evil double personality and have admitted to so many bad things I don't think-"

"Gimmie!" Apple roared leaping up and attempting to tackle Bunny to the ground.

Bunny easily sidesteps. "Apple! You are in no condition to receive any more shocking news!"

"But I'm the wronged party!" Apple snapped, scrambling on the floor, disturbingly spider-like, unable to decide to get back up or to just charge from the ground.

"No, Wonderland and Raven's homeland are the wronged parties here; you are just a stubborn little princess that has refused to grow up and adapt to this truth! Look at you! You're talking to yourself! And half of you is contemplating hurting lots of people for not giving you what you want at the snap of your fingers!" Bunny makes large gestures at the prone princess.

"I'm sooorrry!" Apple whines, tears falling from her eyes.

"There is a difference for being sorry and working to make things right Apple!" Bunny shook her head exasperated. "Acceptance is an essential part of moving forwards and yet instead of acting like the queen you are supposed to become you are literally tearing yourself into two different people! One set on wallowing in self-loathing the other gearing up to strike at people like a child whose favorite chew toy got taken away! Now what we are going to do is to drag you one of the newly appointed councilors that will not report back to your mother and you are going to knit yourself back together, and then, and only when I think you are stable enough, will I let you see what's in this lett- **_Yeowch!_** Did you just _bite_ me? Oh my gods, Apple White! What is wrong with you-? Don't you dare try to run away from- Don't even think about jumping from that balcony- Apple White! You are in so much trouble when I find you!" Bunny hollered to the receding blonde and red figure, disappearing into the night far below the balcony railing.

"Um." Blondie coughed.

Bunny paled as she looked over to the neighboring balcony to come eye to eye with the reporter, Briar, and Faybelle.

Bunny held up her hands. "I can explain-!"

"It's okay roomie, we overheard everything!" Faybelle appeared far too pleased with herself as she pointed behind Bunny. "The balcony doors were open, and we could hear Apple screaming to herself from the wall. Has she really lost her marbles? What was in that envelope? Are you really a Wonderland spy? Have I finally rubbed off on you and taught you some reasonably evil traits?"

"Hey I'm the one who's supposed to ask the questions!" Blondie protested.

" _She's_ the one who bit _me_!" Bunny defended, for a lack of anything else to say.

"I really miss Raven." Briar mourned bitterly. "When she was here nobody flew or snuck in at unholy hours to wake me up and gossip about how unfair Snow White was for trying to take away stories from deserving villains or theorize where Raven went, Apple never screamed to herself loud enough to carry through the walls, and I knew I should have listened to Ashlynn and followed her earlier to go sleep somewhere else while Blondie and Faybelle were distracted by Apple's noise."

"Terribly sorry about that." Bunny apologized. "Do you want me to spirit you away too, I know a few good places to sleep undisturbed and I'll be happy to show you… if you lot help me catch Apple first."

"So you _are_ a spy!" Blondie cheered, pointing at Bunny from around Faybelle's side, completely thrilled.

"End my suffering." Briar pled the dark evening sky.


	9. Chapter 9

Tucked away in the cave used for storing equipment for maiden and hero practice Apple switched on the flashlight app on her phone and shined it onto the envelope in her hand.

 _I can explain everything, why I haven't attempted to make them stop (even though I hardly think that I could do a thing about it in the first place) and why this is happening at all!_

 _Apple you have to read this before anybody else does_!

Raven's old (obsolete now) royal seal was affixed firmly in place as Apple pried it open, and there were no hints of tampering so aside from maybe Bunny already knowing whatever this big secret was… it was still safe.

 _I just cannot allow for this wrong to go on without repercussions, it wouldn't be fair to my mother or to the worlds she cursed._

 _I also refuse to let history repeat itself, for whatever fondness I may feel for you I still must stand firm in stopping this pattern of hurt and suffering from continuing, not just for my sake, but for the sake of my father, my mother, my people, and my future children._

 _Please, please, please try to understand Apple, you can hate me all you want but please at least acknowledge that this is not about me or you anymore, this is about making the hard choice to do what is right and to right a wrong that should have never happened! Evil Queens are supposed to guide and protect Snow White onto her throne, to ceremonially transition her to the crown, they aren't supposed to be driven to madness and used to make anybody look better in comparison! When the fairytale ends so does the Evil Queen's obligation to be evil! We are people too Apple, we have dreams and feelings too! My mother had them, but she gave it all away because I believe she loved your mom too much for her own good!_

 _Please know that I never wanted you to get hurt, and I believe that you deserve to know the truth. I am sorry that it has come to this Apple. I will miss you, and I hope that you can find a way to persevere through this._

 _P.S. Please take a closer look at the letters I have sent you previously, I believe that they will help you!_

 _~Love you always, Raven Queen-King_

The nude teenaged girl in the photograph was nude save for the hooded cloak that she held up to cover her chest from the camera, she sat, kneeling on the edge of a bed and accepting a kiss from another girl standing fully clothed in front of the bed, the nude girl allowing herself to be supported around the waist and for her paramour to brush her hood back revealing the side of her face.

At the sight of a teenaged Snow White and Evil Queen kissing Apple's fingers lost purchase on the paper and left it to fall to the floor. The princess already dreading what looked like photocopied images of love letters still left in the envelope. Waiting for her to read through them.

XXX

" _Holy motherfucking gods of heaven_." Faybelle's swearing woke Apple up from her resting place on one of the training mats, the fairy and Briar are staring at the photograph with wide eyes while both working to keep Bunny from snatching it away from their grasp. Blondie is kneeling beside Apple, wide-eyed while reading some of the letters that the princess had left strewn about, using the light from her own phone to read with surprising speed through them.

Apple is too tired and her mind is too frayed for niceties or verbal anger.

So after a moments deliberation she shoves Blondie roughly over onto her back with her slippered foot and jumps up to bite Faybelle's arm.

" _The fuck?_ " Faybelle shrieks, Apple plucking the photograph from the fairy's grip in the process.

The princess is only momentarily stunned by the admittedly deserved backhanded slap to her face but that still doesn't stop her from avoiding Briar's concerned attempt to look over Apple's smarting cheek and charging out of everybody's reach out of the cave.

XXX

Because for the most part Raven has been kept out of her father's political assassination plans of Snow White, Raven has been focusing even more efforts into learning how to become a good monarch and using her growing public image to help promote new innovations and revolutionary ideas that'll help make the kingdom a better place for all.

It wasn't popular with everybody, all these new things happening at once, but that was only to be expected and Raven did her best not to worry about the small groups here and there that wanted things to go back to how they were before, after all between so many people being so tired of other kingdoms ostracizing them for being citizens of a villain kingdom plus the outrage over Snow White's actions to make herself look fairer than any of her ancestors as well as gaining herself more power than ever made Raven's efforts to change up lots of things highly supported by both the people and the government, the recent elections for government offices having politicians scramble to appear more anti-fairytale and pro-big change than the others and ultimately gain the monarchy's support which had sped up the process for integrating new things even faster than what had been expected.

"Prince Hraban are you really Raven Queen in disguise?" The little human-looking boy with wolf ears who had escaped his guardian's watch asked with big doe eyes while everybody else was distracted with dancing and singing merrily back and forth through the first of many large portals activating that day that would constantly connect the formerly dead-end streets of the Good King's homeland with that of the former kingdom of the Evil Queen, enlarging cities and towns from two far away areas on the map The giant arching structures barely noticeable by the eye being so distracted by one side of the street having different weather and temperature than the other.

Raven grinned broadly. "Yes." The witch admitted readily.

"But people love you! My older brothers and sisters say that you don't have to keep hiding, you didn't have to change your name." The little boy declared reasonably as if there was no need to argue with him, Raven liked this one immediately.

"I got tired of having to always be the dreaded and horrible Raven at my old school." Raven said simply. "So when I moved back here I changed it to Hraban which means Raven in the old tongue of my mom's hometown."

The boy scrunched up his face, his wolf ears wiggling as he thought, from beside her Raven discretely signaled her appointed Wonderland guard to start searching for the boy's guardian.

"So if Raven and Hraban mean the same thing then you really didn't change your name at all!" The boy finally concluded. "But then why has the news in Ever After said that you aren't you and that you are somewhere else?"

"Because they haven't bothered to ask what Hraban stands for." Raven said simply.

"That's dumb." The boy pouted, a fang sticking cutely up from his lip.

"Tell me about it." Raven agreed full heartedly, how no one at Ever After was either making the connection or even believing it at all mystified her.

"So why did you dye your hair?" The boy asked, ears perked forward.

"When I was little I really wanted to dye my hair a different color but my dad said that I had to wait till I was older and out of school, so now that I'm older and out of school I get to change it into whatever color I want! Next week I was thinking about orange, or maybe pink."

"Dye it green!" The boy lit up in excitement.

"Is that your favorite color?" Raven asked.

"One of them!" The boy was bouncing on his toes. "I also like Yellow, and Blue!"

"Oh my!" Raven grinned. "Yellow is my most favorite color did you know?"

"No I didn't know!" The boy looked delightedly shocked. "I always thought that your favorite color was purple since you wore it so much!"

Raven giggled. "Purple is my third favorite color actually, I just liked wearing it because Yellow was so hard to wash out stains and stuff from playing in the forest."

"Yeah." The boy nodded in sympathy. "So is white, I don't like having to wear white because then I can't go out and play."

Raven was about to respond when the alarmed voices of a man and a woman drew close.

"Oh your highness we are so sorry! We were looking away for merely a second and then he just disappeared!" The man, a human explained apologetically while the woman that was with him transformed into a wolf and began licking and checking the boy over.

"Quite alright, I was the same way at his age, my father still complains about the time I snuck off to find buried treasure on Black Rock beach." Raven chuckled at the memory.

"The place in the old Queen Kingdom where the sea dragons come up to sun themselves?" The man looked alarmed.

"Yes, my father nearly had a heart attack when I was reported to have been adopted by a mother one as part of her clutch. It took ages to distract her long enough to get me back." Raven sighed, she had been way too little to fully grasp the danger.

A look passed the man's face and Raven could tell that the man was suddenly thinking that this actually explained a lot about the infamous Raven Queen.

"Yes well thank you for looking after our little brother, and also thank you for your support with human and werewolf couples, thanks to you our parents don't have to hide and our dad can come back here from Ever After to work the farm with our mother and the rest of her pack.

Ah, that explained a few things. "Well it just doesn't make sense to prevent consenting people from being in love just because it's not proper for a fairytale."

"And we aren't in a fairytale so it doesn't apply to us!" The human man agreed.

 _I could never feel guilty about this, helping people and doing good things is all I've ever wanted to do_. Raven thought to herself a conversation, and a darling picture of Raven and the Hound-siblings for the local paper later.


	10. Chapter 10

It always took a relatively short time to find Apple again, the princess had gone off on so many dangerous adventures in the past that when Raven had left Briar had activated the parental tracker on Apple's phone and changed the password needed to shut it off. Just in case.

The _real_ challenge was keeping her from running off again.

"If she bites me one more time I'm gonna mess up her face I swear! Faybelle swore furiously while Briar gingerly dabbed antibiotic cream to the wound on the fairy's thigh.

"Apple probably wouldn't bite you if you had let us use the net this time." Briar pointed out calmly.

"She's a freaking _damsel_ and the fucking leader of the Royals to boot she's not _supposed_ to fight back or act like an animal!" Faybelle insisted with gritted teeth at the sting. "She even broke the skin!"

"Yes, she is acting like an _animal_ , as well as showing serious signs of losing the plot in her mind. That's why we have to find her and get her some professional help as soon as possible! Trust me, I know madness and this… this is not the good kind." Bunny sighed prodding one of her own bandaged bite-marks with tentative fingers. "How long do you suppose we can keep this hush hush before her teachers get suspicious? I know that it's been nearly three days but somehow I highly doubt that a school-wide search for her with lots of people out and about and making her feel like a hunted hare would help at all."

"A while I'm sure." Briar shook her head while applying gauze to Faybelle's wound. "As long as we keep doing the thronework for her and nobody looks too deeply between the connection of _us_ saying that she needs some " _alone time_ " _and_ the blonde and red _she-beast_ that keeps stealing Hunter's sandwiches and any unattended lunchboxes on campus…"

"She never did warm up to Ashlynn's boyfriend did she." Blondie mused in contemplation.

"What I'd like to know is what are we supposed to do about what we know about Snow White and the Evil Queen being an unholy item back in the day." Faybelle groused sourly, putting her pants back on. "There is no way that the villain community would stand for this! A mentally ill villain being manipulated to the point where everybody's reputations were dragged through the mud! My _mother_ won't stand for some maiden sending her crazed dog after her story! Being outwitted by a fellow villain in an ingenious and competent manner is fine and all but _this_?"

"To be made the victim all over again will only makes things worse for the Evil Queen!" Bunny argued. "Part of her psychosis and the reason why she did what she did during the Dragon Games was because she was tired of Snow White hurting her all over again. Not only that but her old rival had also dragged Raven into the whole mess which made things worse! She was trying to protect her young! …Granted in a completely twisted sort of way but still!"

"I still can't believe that Snow white wanted the Evil Queen to take over all the lands so that they could rule over them together at all." Blondie shook her head. "I thought that she loved the Good King too much for anybody else to get between them… not counting her actual need to conquer everything, that got between them."

"Only Snow White's letters to the Evil Queen were sent to Apple from that post-fairytale time period, there is no telling what the other set of love letters entail, or if they were love letters at all or if there were any letters period seeing as how the Evil Queen seems to hate Snow White so much, or even if Snow White was actually in love with the Evil Queen in high school… Lizzie seems to think that there is a good chance that Snow White was just using the Evil Queen in high school and that the Evil Queen was honestly trying to move on, to live a normal life with her family." Bunny shook her head. "And as for Snow White's motives… I personally don't think that she ever truly expected the Evil Queen to succeed, the history states that their relationship and rivalry were pretty intense but things seemed to have escalated to a boiling point not long after the Evil Queen got married."

"So why curse everybody?" Briar wondered. "Why play into that plan when she had everything going for her?"

"I'm pretty sure that only the Evil Queen and Snow White know the answer to that one… any volunteers to go up to ask them?" Faybelle snorted sarcastically.

Silence and the fervent shaking of heads were her only answer.

"Thought so."

XXX

After the initial shock wore off and the usual doom and gloom theatrics portrayed by the media about all the potential worse-case scenarios that could happen things got… well pretty ridiculous actually.

The cycle went like this; the United Lands of the Witch Kings would announce all of these new innovations and ideas that were going to go mainstream, Snow White would pick one to verbally condemn in a long public speech as either outrageous, unsafe, or downright appalling, and then Raven and the Good King would swoop in to promote the new thing with something that would help the people at large and make dozens of speeches that were both shorter and had humorous and personal touches that the citizens of their realms just ate up because they made it funny and spoke to the people like… they were intelligent individuals of a concerned populace who had the right to know things about their changing home and then flooded the radios and mirrors with lots of easily explained information about the new thing going on and had people dedicated to each project to answer the people's most pressing questions.

There were skeptics of course, however there was something to be said about cultural clashes and Snow White's obliviousness towards them.

Desperate to cling to any foothold she could clamber onto Snow White and several of her dwindling allies, had attempted to beseech themselves to the people of the United Lands of the Witch Kings, which would have been an issue except for the fact that they had done very little research into the vastly different culture that they were trying to talk to and thus made two major mistakes:

One: Snow White, ever the attention hog for the spotlight, spoke in royal posh language from her own Ever After dialect and failed to consider that she was talking to a people from three separate cultures and languages (Wonderland immigrants that had been moving in ever since it became known that Raven was the one to free them from the curse, were included and they already didn't like her so they were pretty miffed at being not only excluded in her pretty speeches but also made out to be the confused stupid bad guys in all of this) plus the cultures that were coming in from another dimension who were all mystified and more than a little ticked off about their native geniuses being referred to as " _things"_ and " _dangerous things"_ at that.

The major thing that Snow White didn't get though was that due to the sudden isolationism of the Evil Queen's homeland (thanks widely in part to Snow White who would mention the place as if only the most desperate would try to live there) most people never learned Ever After standard and chose instead to keep themselves to themselves and speak the ancient tongue of their ancestors, most were witches on top of that and very little of the recent generation had access to proper schooling past the eighth grade (and in the more rural areas there hadn't even been a proper education past what your grandmother taught you in nearly over two centuries…), so most didn't have mirror-pads or phones to hear the speech or see the papers she had sent out to them (since many couldn't read their own language let alone know how to read Ever After standard) let alone the education to understand what she was saying at all.

Snow White had, however, been very successful with being heard in the Good King's homeland because the people there had been educated to read and speak both their language and Ever After standard, plus there were professional interpreters who would write subtitles down across all the screens showing Snow White's speech.

And while the people could understand the words that Snow White spoke, the cultural meaning of those same words couldn't have been more different than a cat from a dog.

For instance, in Ever After it was not rude to call someone not of royal blood a _common person_ , or the _common people_ it was just how it was and you were expected to understand that you were below the royal's station; a common person who was not of royalty.

In latanic however _common person_ translated to _plebian_ , which was an insult of the highest standing right in line with _buy O meretrix_ (or a forsaken ex-professional companion or a forsaken guild trained and sponsored sex-worker so dirty that they have contracted all sorts of transmitted diseases, and works for pennies because they're not smart enough to realize that they could be demanding a whole lot more) and _cum ponit purpura canis_ (lays with purple dogs).

Plus there was the fact that it was a long-standing tradition for some Good Kings to be the type of people who disguised themselves and went to the local taverns to drink their local, non-royalty, buddies under the table just like any other normal person would and overall not act all posh and different than in anything else aside from being wealthy and having a title, there was no real talk of the blood being better or different from somebody else's, because culturally that was a stupid unlearned thing to say.

So… yeah with Snow White saying "as the common people" this and it is "up to you as the common people that" and speaking with stiff formality and wearing her most expensive and gold, white silk and red diamond adorning bejeweled dress while declaring "it is my duty by birthright and blood to warn you common people" they heard her alright, loud and clear.

It was the second most successful time that Snow White had ever gotten to gaining the full attention of Raven's people (Raven hadn't seen so many offended people in her entire life, the palace staff were outright yelling at the big mirror in their entertainment room and the head maid had actually covered Raven and Maddie's ears with her hands and impressive bosom to protect their innocence while her father leaned against a confused Mad Hatter, laughing through the entire televised speech and the appalled reactions from the news casters).

 _The most_ attention that Snow White ever got from Raven's people was during her second major mistake: She threatened to take away their precious alcohol.

Now to be fair Snow White didn't actually threaten anything, she just said that turning the acres upon acres of Queen family apple orchards into one big brewery for the royal family's personally patented _poisoned apple_ beer, wine, hard cider, and non-alcoholic tea and cider was an utter disgrace and that alcohol as a whole was an awful habit and the use of the ancestral orchard in such a manner should be temperanced out completely.

Except, _while alcohol was pretty bad when misused don't get Raven wrong_ , it was also a major part of both the king's and Queen's ancestral cultures, used in beneficial health remedies, religious ceremonies, and reverently by old men and women who slowly sip a shot glass of the best stuff every night during evening remembrance to their ancestors and those who had fallen in battles of the past.

Along with being used for a good night out (or in) in some bawdy drunken fun, it was used for that too, but even that was also ingrained into the culture that even the drunkenness had a sort of ceremony to it; having a good time with the tavern crowed to forget hard times and live a little in joy and lowered inhibitions.

So what got translated to everybody were the words; "alcohol is bad" and "temperance", even the most isolated of villages in the former Queen realms seemed to understand _that_ much. And they didn't like it.

Many had even gotten Snow White's message confused enough to think that she had been talking about the tea as well and since tea had been like this unifying thing between the locals and the Wonderlandian immigrants _well_ …

Raven had ended up on the floor laughing with her father right beside her when it all went down, laughed and giggled and chuckled for days and days and jokingly came up with the idea through shared mirth to combine old legends from the ancient Queen land's god of beer and the ancient King's Kingdom's goddess of whine and announce an unofficial combined cultural holiday celebrating the ancient pre-fairytale ancestors and two great ancient battle victories that were won on that particular day (in different eras but who really cared about specifics when booze was promised) and half off all drinks and tea produced from the _Her Royal Darkness's Poison Apple Orchards_.

It had started out as a joke but the palace staff and the royal Wonderland advisors liked it.

So a few months later when the celebrations started and soon after the new portals magically joining the two kingdoms into one opened there were parades, and people dancing and singing in the streets and organized groups from both realms with official interpreters to translate through the language barriers for those who didn't speak latanic or Ever After standard.

It was great, everyone was having a blast and the whole affair was showing a promising future for the newly combined kingdom and its people.

Raven felt bad for being a bit subdued though, but it had nearly been a week since she had sent Apple that last letter and there was no word back from Bunny yet on how she was taking it.

So Raven forced herself to relax, to show off her newly bright green dyed hair under her black cotton witch's hat and grinned cheekily to the cameras and drank non-alcoholic poison apple-cinnamon and pumpkin spice tea with Lizzie and the Queen of Hearts at the orchard's new visitor's center while her father announced that a percent of all current and future proceeds from the orchard would be donated to non-profit children's health programs all across the realm. Allowing everyone's good cheer lift up her mood as she slipped into her role as the _crowned prince_ and at least attempt to focus on not feeling guilty about Apple or vicious revenge upon her chief ancestor and all those people who kept saying that she was a monster that grew poison from the very ground of her cursed kingdom by simply being here at the orchard, converted for people's delight and not their fear.

Later when Raven had excused herself to go take a walk a reporter managed to catch her off guard while she was half glaring, half musing over a big pretty shiny red apple growing from its branch above her head from one of the trees. He asked her what she thought about how some people (Snow White) claimed that the apples were poisoned from the very ground that they were grown in and that they all were in danger from getting poisoned by simply drinking from beverages made from them.

He had said this jokingly, seeing as he had a cup of hot cider in his hand and his camera man had crumbs on his cheek from the apple tarts that had been served to everyone earlier. He even went as far as to point out the facts that Raven had already observed, which had gotten a genuine laugh from the girl.

"Well I suppose there is only one way to really test it out." Raven chuckled reaching up on tip toes to pick the apple she had been staring at from it's tree. "I'm hardly a helpless damsel but _I am a girl_ and by _witch standards_ a maiden since I've as of yet to give birth, I suppose that would suffice for the definition from a fairytale's point of view right? And I must admit that there is something… _enchantingly alluring_ about these pretty red apples…"

The reporter gave his own chuckle as Raven looked right into the camera while she slowly took one big deliberate bite from the fruit, smiling while she chewed and wiping away the juice that had dribbled down her green and yellow painted lips and down her chin with the sleeve of her white dress shirt. Making a big show to check her pocket watch once she swallowed.

"I'm pretty sure that the poison is supposed to be immediate and yet I feel just fine, either the fairytales have a completely different definition of what a maiden really is or I just bit into an ordinary safe-to-eat apple in a very picturesque, but still very ordinary apple orchard, and…" Raven squinted her eyes and made a show of looking around. "No Prince Charmings galloping forward to save me from a bite of fruit, the only prince here is just little old me."

The reporter and the camera guy chuckled at her antics one taking another sip of his cider the other wiping the crumbs from his face.

"So I take it that these apples have just been proven of their innocence." The reporter continued conversationally.

"The only crime these apples are guilty of is being _bewitchingly delicious_." The witch held up her bitten apple and winked flirtatiously at the camera.


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't know how you got in here, again, but I'd once _again_ would like to state that you should leave me alone immediately and this time not return. Like ever. I'm serious Applecakes." The Evil Queen tried to sound stern but only managed a passible tired irritation. "Do I have to start calling out to get someone in here?"

"No, no, no, but the fairytale says-!"

"Then how do you explain this-?"

"Don't talk back to me!"

"I am you!"

"You're talking to yourself again dear." The Evil Queen sighed as she passively watched the princess pace back and forth. "What has gotten into you child? Hey! Oi! Look over here, Apple… Apple! Eyes on mine. No, don't move your eyes in opposite directions it's bad for them. Look here. Here. Into my eyes Appleseed not my chest. Goood now hold it there. Now tell me, in one unified voice, what is going on with you?"

"Wha- why is my mom so… fixated on you?" Apple settles on after a moment with mentally wrestling with the two fighting voices of her inner self. "She's always talking about you, constantly, I knew what your favorite color was, what was your favorite food, that you had a pair of pink fuzzy slippers, all of these grand stories about how you and she faced off in everything from Dragon Games to school assignments… she could see through your disguise, by just… I don't even _know_ how…"

"That was pretty creepy, I'll admit that… actually all of that is pretty creepy, did she really tell you about my comfortable shoes?" The Evil Queen grimaced.

"But why? Why does she always talk about you and you poisoning her in the story and never about… why does she never mention daddy? He's never in the stories she used to tell me about her time at school, she barely mentions him when she talks about her story! It… it doesn't make sense. The prince is the key for the happily ever after part but… you love the Good King right? Raven… Raven once said that you were happy with him, that you were a happy family once… you do love him don't you?"

"Of course! Fiercely! I wouldn't have bothered marrying him if I didn't!" The Evil Queen scoffed, her brows furrowed down at the girl in confusion.

"And you were happy? You were happy with him and Raven and how things were right?"

The Evil Queen hesitated. "…Very much so." The woman sighed, a little forlornly.

"Then why… why did my mom start… saying bad things about you back then? You weren't crossing any lines or being scarier than the other villains back then. If my mother really hated you so much then why… why would she have any reason to write to you after her story was done? Why call you out? Why-?" Apple choked on air. "Why would she say anything if you weren't doing anything? Why would you even bother trying to conquer everything if you were already the most perfect villain the school has ever seen?"

"Why don't you go ask your mother that?" The Evil Queen snapped.

"Because she won't tell me the truth." Apple says truthfully. "It doesn't make sense… you say that you love your former husband and that you love your daughter but my mom… my mom swears that you are lying."

"She's what?" The Evil Queen snarls.

"She says that it's not true, that you landed a king with weak genes so that your heir could be bred to become a decent Evil Queen but with weak powers that could never surpass yours." Apple says hoarsely.

The Evil Queen is boiling mad now. "Why that little- of _course_ she'd try to discredit Raphael and Raven like the little- that she is even daring to say that I should-… all powerful witches have difficulties monitoring how much magic they put into things unless they receive the right training! It takes years to learn that kind of control! Ooh I can't believe her! She doing it all over again!"

"Doing what again?"

"Bad mouthing my daughter and making people either fear her to the point where her life is threatened or believe that she's inadequate to become an Evil Queen! She wouldn't shut up about it when Raven was born until I had no choice but to prove to her that my family is too powerful for her to mess with! I'd never be forgotten as just a footnote in our story, keyword there being _our_ , as it wasn't just hers! She didn't do anything but eat an apple and just lay there! It wasn't even as good of a story as she keeps claiming! The second she caught sight of me in the trees of the apple grove she came to me! She didn't run or even wait for me to trick her! She came up to me and…"

The Evil Queen trails off quietly, looking away with a small blush lightly painting her visible cheek, her expression melting into grief that she tried in vain to hide. "And now I'm in this thrice-damned prison and I can't protect my own daughter!"

Apple blinked, slowly looking around. "Why _are_ you here?" The princess asked.

"I tried to take over everything. Weren't you listening for the past… several years?" The woman deadpanned.

"No why did they leave you here, at a high school, your dangerous, and this place is full of teenagers going to class and goofing off…" The princess stared at her surroundings as if she was seeing it for the first time. "I was able to break in here lots of times, if someone really wanted you to escape this would be like… saying come on over and let the Evil Queen out, let her be all evil and scary until-..."

Apple's eyes widen, horrified. "Why did my mom have that mirror on her when she came to visit? The one that would imprison you again? You're dangerous and everyone has been assured that you'd be locked away! My mom was the one to have you locked up here! She's the fairest of them all, she should be thinking about everyone's safety and she wouldn't have sent you those letters because she's supposed to be good and fair and perfect and in love with daddy and… she wouldn't be any of that if she did send you those letters or bring that mirror along because bringing that mirror along meant that she knew that you'd be escaping! I didn't tell her that you had escaped until much later! So how could she have possibly known if she said that you were so safely locked away where you could never possibly escape?"

The Evil Queen blinked, staring at Apple in worry. "Applecakes… you're making it sound like Snowball came here with the intention of letting me out. I mean… sure she's manipulative and underhanded but she's not… evil. Not my caliber of evil that is, because I'm a villain and-… I mean only a really evil person would put a school filled with children in danger just… for what? Um… well okay so she did do exactly that and I'll admit that she's not a good person, like at all but… I'm the evil one around here, she just… thought that I would be easily controlled that's all, it's not like she was planning on me ever getting out, I mean I've asked Raven dozens of times but she- Apple? Are you listening?"

Evil.

The word hit Apple so hard that she slumped down, landing hard on her rear.

"Appleseed! Hey! Easy now! What's wrong?" The Evil Queen kneeled down so that she was at the princess's eye level, waving her hands in a vain attempt to snap the girl out of it.

Apple began mumbling. "Raven… Raven was supposed to let her out. Only Raven was allowed to visit."

"You can't know that, she is the fairest!"

"But then why put her in a prison that required Raven to break her out of just by touching the glass?"

"Raven wasn't allowed to touch the glass!"

"But they left her up here alone, anything could happen!"

"Raven wouldn't-!"

"Raven is _good_ ; she is good and nice and rational! Mom didn't count on Raven being-!"

"Mom is good!"

"Snow White is evil!"

"Snow White is not evil! There is no proof-!"

"Everywhere there is proof-!"

"Why would she do it?"

"Why would they be an item back in school if they hated each other so much?"

"The picture is a lie!"

"No it's not! It was them! They were kissing and Raven's mom was naked!"

"It's all a lie!"

"How can it possibly be a lie? I saw the letters! She was going to leave daddy after Raven's mom conquered everything! She abandoned Raven's mom to spend a hundred years here! She was going to let her out since nobody else would! Raven was supposed to take the blame! I had brought it all on by not being good enough to beat Raven in the popularity poles! I wasn't the fairest anymore so she was going to make sure that I was! The letters prove it!"

"The letters are a lie! This is just crazy even contemplating any of this!"

"It's her handwriting! Her signature! It's her voice!"

"So?"

"So everything! Can't you see how this changes everything?"

"How could you-?"

"How could I? I'm the one talk-!"

"You are me!"

"So are you!"

"ENOUGH!" The Evil Queen roared, furious. "Apple White you explain yourself this instant! How did you know all of that? What is going on?"

Apple breathes hard, if the Evil Queen weren't so alarmed by the amount of secrets, _her_ secrets, that the girl somehow knew, the woman would have flinched at the feral wild look the princess is making, looking hard at infinity or something off to the side of the mirror like someone frozen in fear and being very, disturbingly still…

"You don't know how I'd know?" Apple asks her voice high and airy. "I thought that they'd tell you everything."

"Don't be idiotic, I'm a dangerous villain! Of course they'd make Raphael and my daughter keep me out of the loop!" The Evil Queen paused, realizing what she just said, before inhaling deeply and at least attempting to be patient, because Apple was obviously not sane enough at the moment to be scared into telling her anything. "…Er, exactly what is this "everything" that you are referring to? Last I heard your mother was going into conniptions over my little girl being out of her grubby little reach."

"The Good King and Wonderland have filed criminal charges against Snow White for murder and conspiracy to neglect mass human and creature life." Apple's tone is haunted.

"…What?"

Apple launches into the story as if in a trance, dispassionately listing out all the evidence, all the witness accounts from Wonderland when they sealed them off in quarantine, …about the plans against the Evil Queen and Raven in order to gain more support and power from still cursed realms and realms completely petrified of the Queen name.

The Evil Queen does some creative swearing at this point but Apple keeps talking forcing the woman to quiet down and listen.

Apple's talks about Wonderland being angry, so very, very angry, how her mother has been unable to catch solid ground on anything for months, how it looks almost like the throne will be taken from her and Apple will be either placed solely into her father's care or that Apple will have to be assigned a temporary guardian because as it stands now by Ever After law Apple can't inherit the throne until after she graduates and completes her story, and Snow White had already refused to make an exception with Apple after it had been made clear that if Apple were to take the throne all interactions between mother and daughter would be brief and closely monitored by Wonderland to keep Snow White from influencing her daughter, and save for Snow White suddenly dying or Apple formally abdicating as a future Snow White, thus officially turning her back on her own mother and making Ever After, by law, a non-fairytale kingdom there was no way for Apple to inherit the throne and save face for herself.

Rebels were questioning Apple's every motive, Apple was not used to such treatment, even while living with Raven Apple had never gotten used to the way the witch had always made a face and questioned Apple on why the princess kept acting like everything would magically happen or appear just because Apple wanted it. Apple was the resident heir to the Ever After throne so Apple had always been so exasperated in how Raven so easily forgot the unspoken hierarchy that took place amongst the fairest of the fair, the most popular and perfect stories as well as the fact that the school was smack dab in Snow White's kingdom.

But things had changed drastically now, the Rebels looked upon Apple with deep suspicion (though admitting to the whole toothbrush thing early last year probably didn't help matters since a few Rebels had been around when she had admitted it) and the Royals positively _feared_ her (again, the toothbrush thing didn't help things), or were trying to surpass her in power.

And Apple didn't know whether to fight it and prove her mother's innocence or to just… gracefully accept it and do what little she could to salvage things.

"You used my kid's toothbrush? Without her knowledge?" The Evil Queen looks positively green. "Apple White that is so utterly unsanitary! What if you gave Raven a cold or the flu huh? That is just disgusting!"

"Mom says that you and her used to share a toothbrush whenever you two were out on club camping trips!" Apple defends with a whine.

The Evil Queen's hands come up to hide her face. "Oh dear gods… I didn't know _that_! Ew!"

"Raven forgave me for that in one of her letters…" Apple mumbled sullenly. "She tried to warn me the last day she was here that she wasn't coming back, that she couldn't protect me like she usually did, but I didn't listen, Grimm why didn't I listen…?"

"Protect you? From what? You're the princess! Like the princess of princesses, Snowball made sure of that…" The Evil Queen muttered sullenly. "I bet if you cried and pled pathetically then you'd win 'em all back, that's what Snowy always did whenever she was in trouble or did something wrong… worked every single damn time too…" The woman obviously was trying to look angry but something in the way she said the words told the part of Apple that was paying attention that the woman was more ashamed by the memory than angry for some reason.

"Raven always made it clear to the Rebels not to fight with me, that they should just leave that to her and not worry about it, I used to think that she was just doing that to protect them from me but now I know that she was protecting me from them as well. I was so used to-… to always getting what I wanted and for everything to go perfectly to the plan that I had-… fairytales and the real world are supposed to be separate! That's what my mom told me after that scary time I accidentally fell down that well and- but that's not true is it? Sticking right to the plan and the fairytale wasn't going to protect me from it, living happily ever after was just… it wasn't going to just be me smiling and waving and everybody loving me and having a daughter and having everything I've ever wanted at my beck and call was it? It was going to still be real life; it was all going to be real life! I-… I have been living-…!"

Apple was almost hyperventilating, the full realization was there, just within reach and coming towards her at speed that the princess didn't like at all.

So the Evil Queen jumped right into the heart of the matter.

"Apple how did you know about me and- about who I was before I became the Evil Queen and my relationship with old Snowball?" The woman growled sternly. "Don't try my patience by going crazy on me before I get to know the truth."

"Raven keeps sending me letters, I keep trying to find where Raven is, Raven feels bad for not being able to protect me, and I wanted to bring her back because I miss her and my mom says that if we brought her back then we could adopt Raven and help her break free from the lies and return my story back to how it was supposed to be! …But they don't want that because… because that wasn't what was really going on right? So they sent me the picture and the love letters between you and my mom in high school and those love letters she sent you after you got married about how if you left the Good King and conquered all the realms that she'd leave daddy and you two could rule together and raise Raven and I as-… but that never happened. Because you love the Good King and you love Raven and… a-and you knew Snow White was… lying… they sent me all of that because they wanted me to know the truth and they wanted me to stop because if I played along I'd end up hurting Raven-…" Apple suddenly couldn't breathe.

A complicated look crossed the Evil Queen's face. "Apple what picture-? I thought that Snowy had destroyed all the evidence of our- even the secret spot where I kept everything in at the old estate was cleared out she said!"

Apple still couldn't draw breath so she reached into the bodice of her dress and unfolded a piece of paper, holding it up for the Evil Queen to see.

Now it was the Evil Queen's turn to lose her breath. She didn't know whether to be shocked or mortified. "She… she didn't destroy them? Sh-she had been lying about having found them? Wait, who sent you that? Who would even- you're her kid! You shouldn't be seeing that! Apple rip that up this instant!"

"In the letters Raven said that she doesn't want history to repeat itself, that I should learn to stand on my own, that she is fond of me but she cannot allow that to stop her from doing what is right." Apple lets out in a rush. "She was terrified by all the trouble she and I have been going through, she was having nightmares because of all the close calls we've had. I was fine with it because I'm a fairytale character and the maiden is always supposed to survive but-… Raven knew that fairytales don't protect people from the real world! We had actually been in danger the whole time and I could have- she could have been lost forever and- Ancestors…." Apple curled up around herself, her body shaking as she pressed her clammy face into the cold floor.

"Applecheeks what-?" The Evil Queen didn't even know what to do in this situation, the girl was more afraid of whatever was in her head and not the Evil Queen, which was… odd, considering who she was.

The Evil Queen tried catching the girl's attention again, several times in fact, in many different levels of cajoling and threatening but to no avail, eventually the older witch finally concluded that there was nothing to be done but to simply sit and wait out the girl's delirious mumblings and rapid breathing.

Which was fine, because now it was she who needed time to think.


	12. Chapter 12

They both do quite a lot of thinking.

The moon is coming out when Apple stirs, clutching at empty air and muttering to herself about the phone she lost somewhere before resuming another cycle of mumbling to herself.

The witch paid no heed, the princess had done all of this before and no amount of trying to snap the girl out of it on her end seemed to make any difference at all so for this round she stayed still and attempted not to rouse the girl's attention.

Last time the Evil Queen had managed to catch the girl's attention the princess had wheezed out something about reality and danger before passing out.

The witch was certain that Apple had passed out at least twice thus far, and not the graceful sort of fainting all maidens are trained to do, that kind of passing out was supposed to replicate an era where everyone wore corsets and nobody could breathe properly- save for most villains at the time because the villain community wasn't stupid enough to think that being constantly lightheaded and painfully squeezed into place was at all practical let alone worth it.

Especially when one could simply spell your waist to _appear_ that impossibly tiny without it actually being that tiny. The Evil Queen never understood why her daughter wore a corset around her waist but Raven had said in an ominous sort of tone that it was a gift along with the rest of the outfits she got so there was no need for her to get new clothes for a few years.

The Evil Queen had decided not to press the matter after the first few times she asked.

But the type of passing out that Apple had done involved going into hysterical fits, ugly crying, talking- mostly arguing in an alarming manner- with herself, and hyperventilating until she blacked out… which by the way the girl groaned and whimpered meekly told the woman that passing out for real was actually extremely painful.

But that was neither here nor there at the moment because the Evil Queen had some serious things that she needed to think about, chief among them being sorting out her own feelings over quite possibly being played (once again) by her nemesis into doing exactly what the other woman wanted her to do.

It was more than a little frustrating.

The Evil Queen wasn't-… after officially gaining the title she wasn't _supposed_ to keep getting tricked any longer, villainy already didn't make sense, she had to curse her old teachers in order to get good grades at all and most of the evil things she did in school outside of classes was a combination of guesswork and playing by ear, which was difficult enough along with attempting to act like a mentally normal person on top of that, it was downright frustrating and impossible but she had worked hard to just keep acting like her mom and remembering the former Evil Queen's advice of pretending that everything that she did was on purpose-like accidentally taking the Mad Hatter too seriously when he started speaking riddleish and summoned up a horde of tiny flying pink-argyle elephants in the hallways (everyone had been delighted at first, then saw that she had been the one to do it and they all ran screaming, save for the Wonderlandians, they were actually rather charmed by the display), or that that she had meant to do something awful instead of awkward in a social setting (like the time she had laughed a little too loudly at some birds bickering over a shiny object with a class pet's funeral nearby- angrily acting as if anything less to be expected from a future Evil Queen was a bit much for the mourners and they readily agreed with shrugs before proceeding to ignore her).

And it had worked, at least to the point to where the Headmaster had been pleased with her progress enough not to put her in the special classes reserved for the students who were not mentally able enough to go through a fairytale on their own. He and Giles still pushed her hard to keep doing better, keep acting as though she knew what she was doing, and while she had made top marks in technical classes and surpassed even the smartest of students in things like mathematics and chem-myth-stry, to the point where in a normal school she would have already had enough to graduate with a bit of side help in things like literature and writing about her feelings in art class… it wasn't good enough at this school, because at this school it was all about acting your part and the Evil Queen before she became the Evil Queen… was positively lost on how to do so outside of a classroom, the skills required for such a thing were well beyond her realm of understanding.

Being in a special class like that would have been humiliating on its own, sure it would, how could it not? But being separated and pointed out to be part of those who lacked would have… been utter torture, the kids who went to those classes were always harassed by the normal people and they were-… treated more like pets or small children than young adults, the witch knew that she could not stand being in school at all if she messed up and was put into that class.

Her roommate was nice enough about her odd quirks, the excessive tidiness, the chalkboard of equations that the witch would do to settle down, the advanced research books taking up every available space, Little Red Riding Hood even going so far as to say that her roommate was the next biggest misunderstood genius of their time and that Big Bad Wolf boy that was always hanging around for some odd reason or another praised the witch for being the smartest villain that the school had ever seen.

But it wasn't enough, it was never enough, because no matter how hard she tried she just could not understand her role well enough to act it out properly enough to satisfy everybody's conflicting definitions on what was real villainy.

And young Snow White was the first to notice, the first to help the witch out of social missteps, the first to suggest that they should act like they were rivals to help prepare them for the future, the first to whisper in the witch's ear what was okay and not okay, what evil goal the witch should do that day, the first to gain the witch's full trust, the first the witch had ever told about her mental condition, the first of _many, many_ things that had felt so right at the time…

…Snow White had been the first to betray the Evil Queen so horribly as well…

She had done her duty; she had become the pristine example of a villain and was used as an example to future generations, she had ignored the pain in her chest as she said goodbye to her princess and closest confidant, poisoned her and gave her up to her future prince. She had ignored the pain and gave the girl up just like she was supposed to do, she had done everything that Snow White had ever asked of her!

So why did she have to hurt her when the Evil Queen had already given her everything that she could give? Why did she have to drag Raven into this as well? she had been just a baby at the time, perfect and innocent, what right did Snow White have in accusing baby Raven of being… a _cur_ to be shunned and forgotten, just like her mother…

And it had been a ploy hadn't it? That's what the evidence that Applecheeks had been so worked up about had said. Use the Evil Queen's mental confusion to make Snow White and her kingdom be the only one good enough to stop the evil beast, the only one that was able to protect everybody else while the Evil Queen and her little Raven were to be used over and over again to keep being popular, to keep in power.

Had Snowball been using her this entire time?

"Did my mom ever visit you?" Apple pipes up, the first lucid thing the girl has said in hours.

"Huh?" The Evil Queen blinked. "No, no she never did. I kept getting told that she would but she never followed through. Why do you ask?"

"She says that she did. She says that she confronted you about what her people found in the curses you placed on the worlds and swore to you that she would not rest until she found a way to cure everybody from your evil spell!" Apple insists as if hoping beyond hope that the woman was going to fess up and admit that Snow White really did visit her after all.

The witch suddenly looked very panicked. "They tested what I put into the curse?" The woman asked a strange strained note in her voice.

"Yes…" Apple nodded reluctantly, uncertain as to why the woman was looking like a kid caught with their hand in the muffin tin.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I was there, it was one of my first appearances in public, I was really very good, I stayed still the whole time!" Apple looked proud of herself for that.

"…Then why hasn't she come out with the fact that it was all show and no-… well… no actual real danger?" The Evil Queen asked utterly perplexed. "Why would she not take the opportunity to shove my face into the fact?"

"What?" Now it was Apple's turn to blink. "But… if it's all show then how were you expecting to conquer everything if you didn't…? Um how exactly were you planning on taking over if you _destroyed_ all those worlds? There would have been no one there to serve you."

"Exactly, that's why I only made them _think_ that they were in danger so that they'd have no choice but to bow down to me, I had so many worlds infected that I could just claim that I could always make one realm an example of what happens when people defy me and they'd be too afraid of the things that they come up with in their own heads of what I was going to do to them to question me, I wasn't planning on having to lift a finger once they submitted control to me, just like I wouldn't have had to do anything if I had managed to imprison you all behind the mirrors all those months ago, if I had control of the ruling monarch's children then that would be just as good as my original plan and saying that I cursed all those worlds." The Evil Queen explained as if it should have been obvious, it had taken her weeks to think that one up and even then it had been something based on, ironically, Snow White had come up with way back when Snowy had first figured out the young Evil Queen's mental condition. If you make people believe it's true then they'll never question it, even if it gets messed up somehow, they'll only believe what they want to believe.

But with proof and facts even belief could be swayed.

And therein lay the current dilemma.

Silence descended between them.

"Am I… missing something here?" The Evil Queen scrunched her face up in confusion. "Did Snowy… _lie_ about taking a look-see at my curse? Pretty underhanded if you ask me-"

"No…" Apple whispered horrified.

"No?" The Evil Queen blinked.

"I was there when they tested the cloud in Wonderland." Apple whispered, eyes glazed over. "I had wanted to see, mom let me, said that this was the act of a _truly perfect_ Evil Queen… I remember mom talked with the researchers who had tested your curse, she had introduced them all to me earlier and they were smiling and saying to me that it was all going to be okay and mom-… mom was frowning and she said that daddy was going to take me home and later mom had made the announcement to everyone that what they had found was really bad and she had introduced a man I had never met before as the head researcher and then his team, but the head researcher I had been introduced to was a woman and it was a different team than the ones I had met and when I asked mom said that they all got really sick so she had to find new researchers and that if I was a good girl I would not cause trouble by mentioning the people I had met in Wonderland… and then she- called for the quarantine."

"So… where did the people you talked about go? They certainly didn't get sick from _my_ curses that's for sure…" The Evil Queen looked uncomfortable.

Apple broke down sobbing.

"Applecheeks?" The Evil Queen asked.

"I- no! it's too horrible! It can't be true!" The girl cried. "Please! Please tell me that it's not true!"

"What can't be true?" The Evil Queen shook her head. "Apple… I don't understand, you have to-… you have to make it plainer so that I can understand! Okay? I'm not-… I _can't_ understand… I'm not capable of… _that_ kind of thinking."

Apple sobbed looking up at the woman and breaking down all over again.

"I had to go to their funerals…" The princess eventually whispered. "Mom said that they got too sick too fast from your curse."

"…But my curse wasn't designed to kill off future subjects- oh." The Evil Queen bit her lip. "Oh." She says again for a lack of anything else.

"I'm a monster! I'm-… _I'm the daughter of the real evil queen_!" Apple wailed.

"I'd remember giving birth to _you_." The witch mumbled distractedly. "No blondies in the family for the last seven generations."

"You never killed anyone!" Apple cried.

"Well it would have been pretty stupid since killing off your subordinates only leads to work shortages." The Evil Queen coughed. "And who would I get to gloat to if there was no one around to hiss hatefully back?"

" _I'm a monster_ …" Apple dug her shaking fingers into her hair.

"…No dear, you are _human_ … well as far as I know of course, family histories get kind of weird with royalty so maybe you've got a hint of an abominable something or other-"

" _Raven said that she has feelings for me_!" The princess cut off out of the blue.

The witch startled. "Wait! Say what?"

"Raven said before she left that she had feelings for me that she shouldn't have! I-I think that she loved me, a-and I-… I was horrible to her! How could she possibly love me if I was always so- such a bully? I betrayed her! Hurt her feelings! I wouldn't leave her alone for a second! I thought it was my right because I was the fairest of them all! My mom told me- everyone told me to keep trying to change her mind about becoming the next you and instead of pushing her over the edge to her destiny I made her sick! So sick that she couldn't even go to school or get out of bed most of the time because she kept collapsing and by the time I found out it was too late to make things right again! Raven would have forgiven me and tried to make things work between us like always but it had been too much so they took her away to save her from me and my mom and-… _I'm not a fair princess at all in this story_!"

The Evil Queen flinched back at the crazed look in the girl's eyes, Apple began to hum as she rocked back and forth.

"I'm Apple, Apple the poisoned Apple, the forbidden fruit poisoned by the evil queen Snow White for the Good Princess Raven and her mother had been fairer than her, Apple, the tool of evil and the tool of jealousy for the Good villain had found her happily ever after with the king that she loved more than anything in the world and he loved her back, and from that love they had birthed Raven, the fairest, prettiest, bravest princess of them all, who would stand up for what was good and what was right and lead everybody into a new era of happily ever after's and save them from being unhappy, but all Snow White got was Apple who was rotten to her core just like her mother, a tool to be used but never to be the real fair princess, even when Raven tried to save the poisoned Apple from her fate, tried to show the poisoned Apple the path that she was walking down and trying to drag Raven down with her, Apple would never listen because she was poison, and even when the fair princess Raven tried to cure Apple and give her happiness forever after with Raven supporting her all the way, Apple was rotten to the core, so she hurt, betrayed and poisoned the fair princess who loved her so much until she could be with Apple no more, the Good King swooping in to save his daughter by taking her away and going on to try to save the woman that he loved by taking down the evil queen Snow White, leaving Apple the poisoned Apple to rot on the ground where she belonged and could never fly up to the sky where the fairest princess of them all flew so happily and free, finally free, finally, finally free from the one who stole her heart and ripped it in two…"

The girl went on as if possessed, shaking, and wild-eyed, and obviously more crazy than the Evil Queen had ever managed to be. The witch scooted back, actually growing too weary of the girl to get too close to the glass.

"Why? Why does she love me?" Apple shifted her attention to the wide-eyed woman behind the glass. "How _could_ she after all _I have done_? What I have been a part of-… _why? Why? Why?..."_

The princess begins to beat her fists to the floor her voice growing in volume with each passing sobbing "Why?" ripping from her mouth, getting faster and faster until the Evil Queen was certain that the entire campus must have woken up by now. It almost felt like the girl was trying to summon a powerful spirit… that or bind it away, either one could very well be possible at this point.

"Apple stop this-!" The Evil Queen tries only to freeze when the girl looks up at the witch with absolute wild fury in her gaze, fists raised above her head.

" ** _WHY WOULD SHE EVER LOVE A MONSTER LIKE ME?_** " Apple roars bringing her hands down upon the glass separating the two.

The mirror shatters in an explosion of broken glass and smoke.


	13. Chapter 13

_"Raven's been having nightmares about us trying to kill her?"_ _Apple had asked in horror._

 _"Well it started out with just you trying to kill her, like you pushing her off the balcony the night of Legacy Day when you two fought till the middle of the night_ _or stabbing her in the back with a pitchfork in the dragon stables after you let her mother go and it became obvious that your little plan to turn her evil wouldn't work, or you just up and slitting her throat in the middle of the night before moving on to kill the Evil Queen "for the crime of being such disappointments towards your story and your perfectly laid plans of becoming the fairest of them all. But in more recent days it's started to extend towards other people too"_ _Kitty gritted her teeth as she informed the princess with false cheer._

 _"Not that I blame her at all for having such dreams, in fact I'd go as far as to say that she's justified in being terrified of the lot of you."_ _Kitty sniffed in disgust._ _"After all there has been just too many incidents where somebody tries to turn Raven evil and a few people to just about everybody nearly loses their lives over the insane "adventure" that follows or Raven and lots of other people get depressed_ _because they are reminded, once again that their lives and their feelings don't matter at all to people who claim to be their friends! I'm kind of scared to attend this school too to be perfectly honest, Wonderland may be naturally filled with danger but I was safer over there than I was over here! Even the Headmaster of this barbaric place, a grown, educated man who is supposed to help protect us and our mental health terrorizes us with lies about people disappearing if they don't follow through with the kingdom of Ever After's "interpretations" of our stories and the less said about the passive aggressive outright harassment that he did by his own hand the better because I've been getting nightmares about that too for months now!"_

 _"He was only trying to help-"_ _Apple tried to meekly reason but was forced to flinch back when Kitty hissed and yowled at her, like a very angry cat._

 _"He knew that Raven was the key to saving my homeland!"_ _Kitty spat in a severe hiss, her blue eyes wide and pupils narrowed to dangerous slits._ _"He's the one who imprisoned the Evil Queen, the one who looked into ways to free all the worlds from her curse! He knew that her blood was needed to free everybody and let us go home, and I bet he wasn't the only fair royal to know that she was the key! But instead he kept silent and even after it came to light that Raven has the power to free all those other worlds he and_ _certain other alumni of this accursed school have taken measures to deny Raven the right, ability, and the support to use her power to free the others every single time she asks and her father send in proposals all because "it's not proper for a daughter of a villain", do you even understand that? Innocent people who are suffering, displaced, or even worse because they are isolated by the quarantine protocols keeping them separated from the other worlds do not have the right to be liberated all because it would be "inconvenient" if Raven was seen as a good guy and gathered slightly more popularity points with the common people than what the "fairest" and "good characters" have!"_

 _Apple had visibly flinched back in both shock and shame, unable to be defiant towards the accusations because Apple knew that they were all, very, very true._

 _"But it didn't actually hurt anybody did it? Just because you suspect that the Headmaster deliberately kept people in the dark about Raven being the key to free the worlds doesn't mean that he did!" Apple tried to sound convinced in her words even though she was obviously having some quick second thoughts herself._

 _"You mean just like he kept telling us that we'd all disappear if we didn't keep in line or how he cursed his own brother and locked him up in the school's library vaults, or how he tried to utterly terrify Raven with that lie and force her to sign that book?" Kitty snarls testily._

 _"Or was that all right and fine just because it was done with "our best interests" hmm? Or more importantly was breaking like, over a dozen laws himself justifiable to you simply because he just so happened to be on your side in all of this? The end justifies the means and all that? Was the only downside in all of this the fact that Raven didn't do what you lot expected her to do? Are you only sorry because instead of being bullied and terrorized to the point where turning evil is the only option for her in order to defend herself against you like you all wanted, like you had planned, her mind instead literally breaks down on her and her bodily health is actually deteriorating because she can no longer keep up the strength to keep getting back up every time you stab her in the back or drag her into a situation where her life is on the line?"_

 _"What? It's not like that! Not like that at all!" Apple insists tears in her eyes. "How could you possibly say such horrible things…"_

 _"Oh can the waterworks princess!" Kitty outright spits like a cat, her sharp teeth bared and her flexing clawed nails get longer as if preparing to attack. "That pathetic trick may succeed to make Raven feel guilty about not giving the spoiled brat that you are whatever you want but such an outright shameful display of weakness and narcissism over the fact that you actually thought acting like a five-year-old would work on a Wonderlandian only proves my point! Here Raven's health is slowly but surely declining and instead of stepping back and seeing the obvious, that the mere sight of you makes her tremble in fear, you go off to make things worse by trying to edge Raven towards becoming someone that you want her to be, not who she is right now! You claim to be her "best friend" and yet not once have you ever acted like one!"_

 _Kitty took two menacing steps forward and Apple, causing Apple to take two steps back. "Villains don't even act like how you keep saying that they do you know? Over half of the drivel that comes out of your mouth about them isn't even true and the other half is only done out of occasional obligation, but nooo you can't stand to have Raven as she is can you? You want her to become the imaginary ideal inside your head! You want to take a living being with feelings and thoughts of her own and you want to turn her into a pet, a toy to play with whenever you feel like it! How can you possibly stand there and say that the two of you are friends when you can't even accept who she is as she is? That's not at all healthy or right don't you understand that? She's this ill all because of you!"_

 _Apple's lip quivered. "T-that's not true! I do like Raven as she is!"_

 _"Then why do you keep trying to change her? Slapping her attempts at being healthy friends with you away whenever she's nice to you by going on about how villains don't do that?" Kitty snipped. "Don't look me in the eye and lie to me when I've already seen you do just that not two days ago!"_

 _"Why are you being so mean?" Tears are falling from Apple's eyes._

 _"_ _ **Because only an utter monster would have let the criminal who condemned my homeland to quarantine out and about at a high school and nearly got us all killed just because someone else dared get more popular than you!**_ _" Kitty roared. "_ _ **You put the people I care about in danger, put my homeland in danger once again, broke what little trust Raven had in you and yet you expect it all to get all better just because you apologized? Because you are the fucking fair princess and therefore you think that none of that matters? That none of us matter as long as you get what you want? How could I not be mean to someone as monstrous and rotten as you!**_ _"_

 _Apple is so taken aback that she has lost the ability to speak._

 _Tentatively at first, but then remembering herself, Lizzie calmly stepped forward to stand beside Kitty, Maddie coming up on the other side as well, calmly drinking tea while giving the quiet crowed a very cold, yet distressingly crazed, look._

 _"It has not been easy for us, having to go to a strange school, in a strange land without hope of seeing our families again was very difficult to swallow yes, but for a native of Wonderland it tends to be far worse because there is far more magic and wonder in the air back home and without it or any form of natural state of madness…" Lizzie trails off._

 _"We go sane, which is just as bad as you lot going mad, it is unnatural to us and it is very bad for our overall health don't you see? This had and it still has ramifications that don't just involve Rebel or Royal views! And the damned quarantine protocols did a lot more harm than the curse itself!" Kitty snaps her teeth in reproach._

 _"We may not all like to but we, all of Wonderland that is, do owe Raven quite a lot." Lizzie continues regally, as cool and impassive as stone. "And while she had initially begged us to let the subject of you letting the Evil Queen out of prison drop I dare say with the nature of her illness that is no longer an option. With hope she will see reason and not return to you once her father is well again."_

 _The breath leaves Apple's lungs with a shocked gust that takes a while to gain back enough to speak._

 _"Lizzie! I-I thought that we were friends!" Apple cries out betrayed._

 _Lizzie's face distorts into a disgusted sneer. "How could I possibly trust you to be my friend let alone an ally when you are holding that dagger in Raven's back? That looks absolutely dreadful by the way, release her at once!"_

 _"Wha?" Apple asks in confusion only to practically shriek when she looks down to meet the terrified gaze of Raven Queen, her head being pulled back at an awkward angle due to the fist-full of_ _ **hair that is dark as night**_ _, that Apple is gripping with brute strength in her left hand, blood dribbles from the captive girl's gasping pale lips, smearing as she tries to swallow, to get enough air to speak, till her lips are_ _ **as red as**_ _ **blood**_ _and her skin, oh_ _ **her fair skin is as pale as snow**_ _and growing paler by the second._

 _Letting go of Raven's hair Apple shrieks again to see that her right hand is clenching the hilt of a golden dagger and that the blade has been buried deep just to the left side of the other girl's spine, right where her heart would be…_

 _"Raven!" Apple cries, lowering the naked form of her friend to the ground, her first aid training kicking in as she whips out a handkerchief and holds it firmly to the injured_ _ **flesh**_ _ **as pale as snow**_ _to help her keep the dagger still, still, still, and resisted the urge to yank the weapon out so that the cut blood vessels containing Raven's precious lifeblood would not spill out and flow freely until she is drained to her death. "Oh Raven I'm so sorry! When- How could I have done this to you?"_

 _Raven tries to speak, but the need to draw gasping breath is more important and so the witch lays motionless as Apple hollers out for help, but the princess is able to decipher a silent "Why" as the girl_ _ **with hair as dark as night**_ _tears up, water spilling freely from her eyes,_ _ **her lips red as blood**_ _now spluttering out spurts of shed blood onto the hard, cold snow-covered cobbles on the ground._

 _"She has poisoned the_ _ **Fair Rebel Queen**_ _with the dagger of the_ _ **Poisoned Apple**_ _!" Someone shouts in the background._

 _Apple looks up to find that the hilt ornament of the dagger is a shiny red jewel in the shape of an apple it pulses once, twice, three times before it begins to darken and soften right before Apple's eyes as if it were rotting._

 _Raven howls in pain and beneath Apple's hands her back's_ _ **skin as white and fair as snow**_ _is burning, blackened and bloody charred lines radiating out from Apple's hands._

 _Apple yelps taking her hands away, eyes widening in horror as Raven continues to scream, her feet kicking and twitching wildly and Apple is startled to see_ _ **red hot cast iron**_ _high heels that look just like the ones that Apple had bought for Raven when the other girl had just moved in… save for the two golden crowns that mark the outer sides as if they were seals and the feet have been chained together, it was the only piece of clothing that Raven wore and it was hurting her._

 _Apple takes the handkerchiefs without thinking and works to pry the hot metal off of the other's charred blackened feet, holding Raven down at one point to keep the other from moving too much._

 _"The Evil Princess is torturing the fair one with_ _ **red hot cast iron shoes**_ _!" Someone yells._

 _"What a horrendous monster!"_

 _"Jealous of her popularity so she seeks revenge!"_

 _"_ _ **Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?**_ _"_

 _"_ _ **The Rebel Queen of course**_ _she is not constantly asking me that stupid question you vain spoiled_ _ **Poisonous Evil Princess**_ _!"_

 _"_ _ **The prince**_ _! We need_ _ **the prince**_ _!"_

 _"_ _ **The Rebel Queen**_ _is also_ _ **the prince**_ _, her very own_ _ **Prince in Shining Armor**_ _ **she has the ability to save herself**_ _!"_

 _"Yes but the_ _ **Evil Princess**_ _has stabbed her in the back through her_ _ **heart**_ _! How can she possibly stand on her own now with_ _ **feet and heart**_ _mutilated beyond recognition?"_

 _"She doesn't need to stand up she needs a doctor! She needs help!" Apple cries out in frustration. "Stop talking and help her!"_

 _"But you are near her you_ _ **Evil Poisonous Huntsman**_ _, you_ _ **toxic fruit**_ _born from the Evil One's very womb! How can anybody come close while you are there to poison anybody you touch? Just look at you! You look just like your mother you do! And look what the_ _ **Evil Queen Snow White**_ _has done to her mother, the_ _ **Good Villainous Queen**_ _! Not even the man she loves, the_ _ **Good King**_ _could save her from such evil!"_

 _Apple looks behind herself and screams in horror at what she sees._

 _Snow White holding Raven's mother's_ _ **pale as snow corpse**_ _up by the neck, her broken neck,_ _ **hair as black as night**_ _cascading down her beaten bare back and over her shoulders, her once magnificent dress all in tatters and shreds, feet as blackened and charred as Raven's,_ _ **Raven's mother**_ _, the_ _ **woman who loved the Good King**_ _, the_ _ **Good King's wife**_ _and_ _ **Raven's mother**_ _…_

 ** _The Good Queen trying to protect her daughter in the only ways she knew how_** _…_

 _"And yet she still fell into my trap." Apple's mother sneered, placing a possessive kiss to the deceased woman's mouth then her exposed chest where there was a gaping hole where the woman's left breast should be, Apple screamed when she noticed her mother holding up something fleshy and soaked in crimson, her mother smiling charmingly at her through red stained teeth and crimson life smeared around her mouth. "_ _ **Taken out**_ _of the picture when her use was done, leaving her little hatchling all alone and defenseless_ _ **under my control**_ _…_ _ **Mirror, mirror on the wall, I shall always be the fairest of them all, no matter who I have to take out to ensure that it is so!**_ _Oh if only my little_ _ **Poisoned Apple**_ _were a more potent_ _ **toxin**_ _, to take out both the prince and the princess… how was I supposed to know that the Good Queen in the story was capable of birthing both inside the same vessel?"_

 _"Mom No! You can't be- you- you're the fairest-!" Apple pled._

 _"Do you even know how much hard work comes with staying the fairest Apple? It takes lots of sacrifices and lots of time to keep up being perfect! There can be no allowances for mistakes or letting others get in the way!" Apple's mother barked. "They were born to serve us Apple! The moment they went off script and dared try to become the fairest themselves we had to stop them! The Rebellion must be stopped! You must stop her!"_

 _Apple gasped startled as wings, feathers as beautiful as the starry night sky sprouted and spread from Raven's back, the girl attempting to get up, but fumbling, the blade in her back having been driven too deep for movement. Maddie rushed to Raven's side, hand gripping onto the blade, prepared to yank it out._

 _"Maddie no! You'll kill her!" Apple shrieked moving to stop the girl in the top hat._

 _"Seize the toxin!" The Good King's voice boomed a moment before Wonderland's armed guards took hold of Apple's struggling form and dragged her away. Maddie taking the opportunity to slide the tarnished poisoned blade from her friend's body._

 _At once Raven breathed, a gust of wind kicked up gifting the girl with a simple yet elegant white dress and witches hat made from snowflakes, the burns and wound on her back cauterizing and healing over with new purpling bruised scar tissue._

 _Getting up with Maddies help, Apple caught a brief glimpse of Raven's beautiful black wings framing the still-healing heart-shaped scar tissue on her back before both took to the blustery winter sky, far away from Apple's reach forever and ever~…_

 _"You should have destroyed her while you had the chance." Whispers her mother's voice in her ear._

 _Apple turns to see her mother gulp down Raven's mother's heart-_

XXX

Apple awakens with a jolt and a soft cry, clinging close to the warm body cradling her tight, rubbing her back soothingly and rocking side to side in a way that brings breath back into Apple's tightly constricted lungs, making her feel safe enough to breathe.

"This is not how I ever imagined our next meeting to go you know that?" Raven's mother sighs sweeping hair out of Apple's face and cradling the crying girl's head to her shoulder. "I was supposed to be the only crazy one and you were supposed to be in on her plans… now what am I going to do with you? You're just as messed up as me and my husband and daughter have already taken over the crazy revenge part… so where does that leave me? Where does that leave you?"

Apple merely hiccups, burying her face into the musing witch's shoulder and listening to the comforting sound of the woman's heartbeat.


	14. Chapter 14

Being set free the second time around is not nearly as satisfying as she had hoped it would have been.

For one thing she had been hoping that her daughter would have been the one to set her loose and for another…

Well it had taken some finagling but after she had magicked up the broken glass back into its previous, unbroken state, transported Apple to her dorm (the fact that her daughter's former side of the room was still in pristine condition with all of the Evil Queen regalia still intact was not lost on her) and bandaged the kid up as best she could, she had managed to fish out one of those newfangled mirror devises from Apple's abandoned book bag and (after many, many frustrated minutes) managed to turn the (damn frustrating) thing on and began her fist online search ever looking into validating the claims of the passed out kid in her lap.

It was difficult to swallow; it was like being punched in the gut really but the kid had been right, once the idea of Snow White actually manipulating her into doing what the crazy lady wanted had gotten past her wounded pride it was… painfully obvious to see how old Snowball was slinging her Evil Queen title around for the pretty people of the right breeding to gasp and shake over while attempting to sling her family's name through the mud, saying that their claims that she had done any manipulating were unjustified and that surely if the Evil Queen were to be let loose they would all suffer greatly under her and her family's tyranny.

The words had made her blood boil naturally, but the burning instinct to go forth and demolish Snowy directly (for realsies this time, no messing around with bickering or anything, just one wrong step and FWOOMPH there would be nothing left but a… well a stark naked Snow White in front of a room full of important people, after all why give her nemesis the mercy of killing her if she could just as easily make her embarrassed and utterly miserable?), were quenched by her daughter's side of things.

Her dearest husband was utterly annihilating Snow White on a political front according to the latest poles, everybody- well most everybody- seemed completely hacked up mad at Snowy right now and Raven, her darling little girl certainly wouldn't be forgotten in history now, nor would she have to live in fear of the White family if things kept going as well as they were currently… at least that's what the predictions from the "experts" kept saying, really she was personally more interested with how… cute her baby girl looked being all goodie-goodie, sure it was nothing compared to becoming the next Evil Queen…

And that was exactly why Raven couldn't become the next Evil Queen. In this way Raven was making her name known, was a leader and a force of nature all in one, the exact opposite of what Snowy obviously wanted, clearly since even though the woman was too dense to make the connection that Hraban and Raven were the same word, the sentiment in all of her pretty little speeches were the same (even the one about the alcohol and hadn't that been a hoot to watch?); Raven, Evil Queen, bad, everything she touched bad, Hraban (Raven) should be forgotten, Snow White is fairest of them all, Snow White the savior of fairytales, everybody should listen to Snow White.

It sounded very familiar, the only thing was that this time around people were actually expressing their doubts and her family at least didn't appear to be suffering from backlash, far from it they were… they were doing pretty well actually.

Well enough that even her tenuous grasp on people skills came to understand that… as much as she desired (almost desperately) to wreak revenge upon Snow White's head personally… anything that she could possibly do to the other woman would pale in comparison to what her own daughter was doing to Snow White right now.

Not even when Snowy's precious little Apple was in danger and had her soul placed into the body of a snake (an appropriate vessel seeing as how Snowball was nothing but a vicious snake to her) by her hand a few months prior had the woman ever looked so… undignified.

That had always been something that had gotten on her nerves, no matter how evil, how horrible she was Snow White never truly cowered from her, never feared her, not in the way that she so desperately wanted (begging in earnest and indicating some acknowledgement that the Evil Queen was somebody that, for once, Snow White regretted earning her ire). Sometimes it felt like Snowball was… happy to see the Evil Queen in her full capacity…

But that made no sense! Before now it had been so damn unnerving that no matter what she did Snow White was always so… smug! Acting all superior with her "I'm the fairest of them all" act, it was so frustrating that the Evil Queen wondered if the only way to make her just… stop was to take over all of the fairytale realms and force people to respect her as an actual ruler, force them to respect Raven, acknowledge that her husband existed! That they were a family and that would never change even after Raven took the throne, and that they… they were not people that deserved to be covered up and forgotten as nothing more than ugly smears at the bottom of the footnotes in Snow White's long historical royal line. They were powerful, and just as important and-…

But Snowball had been expecting this reaction from her hadn't she? Knew which buttons to press like she always did, knew how to get under the skin and how to make her do what Snow White wanted her to do without even lifting a finger. She was the fairest of them all, the most popular and powerful fairytale monarch so anything Snow White said everybody would believe… even when it was never true or was never done before.

The Evil Queen had helped to make Snow white that powerful hadn't she? Fairytales worshipped the fairest of the fair, they loved it when the bright and pure won… they loved to have someone to hate too, someone to blame every bad thing on so that they could feel better about themselves.

Except the world wasn't like that, she did everything for the sake of her family as well as herself, that was… not very evil right? Caring about the wellbeing of yourself and others in the face of a bully and willing to do anything to keep them safe, to help them surpass the bad even when you haven't got the foggiest clue towards what you are doing yourself… that was what the good people in fairytales did and Snow White… was acting more like a villain than a good guy, the good were always supposed to win over the bad but… this wasn't a fairytale right? Fairytales were things that people said happened oh so many centuries ago and they were things that were repeated in these elaborate reenactments… but they weren't real life, they weren't real period.

But people believed in them so much that they had been so willing to believe anything the most popular good character said… even when she was being bad.

Was that why Raven had started her Revolution?

And… she was hesitant about the idea but… maybe she should… stay out of things this time around. It was obvious that Raven and her father knew how to deal with this far better than she ever could, and Snow White seemed to be on this… constant repeat about how the Evil Queen would soon escape and then they'd all see just how horribly they were all being tricked by the Good King and it will only be by Snow White's good graces that she'll save them all…

Maybe it was… time to stop doing what Snowball wanted or expected.

She let that thought settle in her mind like it was a new flavor of gelato ice cream or a new pair of shoes that she was trying out to see if it worked, thoughts turning into practice when Apple struggled in her sleep from bad dreams and had awoken crying and utterly helpless like how Raven used to do when she went through a period of time were she had night terrors where Snow White's men had stormed in and dragged her away.

In a lot of ways Appleseed was still a small child despite the fact that she was due to become the queen and a full-grown adult in less than a year and a half, she had seen the naivety and the child-like attitude Apple had towards her everyday life through the mirror before (though she hadn't been watching lately because Raven wasn't at school and it was too far to travel to get to the mirrors that her daughter was using now), it was positively astonishing to her how Apple had acted like everything was one big game and that nothing, not even the big bad Evil Queen, could touch her, it was annoying as hell back then and highly exploitable too, going on about how unfair her perfect little life was just because Raven didn't want to play her games indeed!

But that was back then, when she had been so certain that Apple and Snowy were working together to harm Raven, back when she had seen Apple as being just as rotten to the core as the tree that she had fallen from.

Now she cradled and soothed a nearly grown woman with the mind of a child until the tears stopped and the girl listlessly agreed to have her help her into a long overdue bath, scrubbing down Apple's long hair and the less… precarious parts of her body (no way was she going to cross that line even under platonic pretenses and it wouldn't do to have the girl start thinking of her as some sort of nurse-maid) just like she used to do with Raven when she was a baby until the water was brown and dirty and Apple had to be rinsed off in the shower, finally clean after who knows how long.

She had searched through the girl's closet for pajamas, frowned at all the formal things which made it impossible to tell which was for public use and which was for relaxation, none of it looked particularly comfortable in her opinion but then again Snowy had been the same way about clothing, all for show and none for relaxing in, so she rifled through her daughter's former things instead, a great deal of it was still there, which made sense since what little she'd seen of her kid lately suggested that her little birdy was trying more for the dashing Charming Prince look (with really weird hair! She despaired ever seeing her child's natural hair color ever again at this rate) rather than the school approved themed dress code (you can where whatever you wanted (within strict reason) but it had to be themed by your future destiny, no exceptions, ever) and it was obvious by the looks of the full closet and dresser drawers that Raven never intended to look back to her Queen heritage.

It was a sad thought but she couldn't dwell on it now, not with little Apple-cheeks clutching the side of her dress like a lost little lamb clad in only the fluffy bath towel draped over her head, shoulders, and back. It was utterly disturbing how vulnerable the kid was allowing herself to be in front of a known danger, she'd even go as far to call it unnatural given the fact that even animals would be wise enough to keep their distance from something that had bitten them in the past.

"You know that most beings would be wearier of me, you know like how people are weary of standing in front of wild dragons, normally people run away or fight, that's the natural responses to clear and present danger." She told the girl even as she helped Apple into one of Raven's abandoned sleep-shirts (Apple was like dressing a half-limp giant doll or a very tiny child that couldn't be bothered with untucking all that blonde hair from under the shirt when it was put on over her head, obediently bowing her head as the woman did the job for her) and wrapped the girl up in a spare flannel blanket that was also in Raven's old closet.

"Maidens aren't supposed to run away or fight we're supposed to wait for someone else to save us, just like our fairytale ancestors had to in order to get a happily ever after." Apple murmured sullenly, looking down at the floor, it sounded more like a mantra drilled into her head than a fact.

The Evil Queen blinked in confusion. "But they did fight and runaway. They may not have been equipped with the right training or street smarts to do it well but the original Snow White did argue and use her feminine blessings to convince the Huntsman not to kill her, she was brave enough to run away from her crazy step-mother and everything she knew instead of staying and perhaps agreeing to uglify herself or chance getting killed by just going back, she was brave enough to become the housekeeper for seven little men- and trust me on this; the dwarves who work in the mines aren't exactly the most courteous or polite lot, at least not up to royalty standards- and if the original Snow White had just… well you have to consider her sheltered life so I suppose she never heard of the phrase "stranger danger" but she hardly just… laid down pathetically and did nothing to save herself. Even the original Sleeping Beauty fought back to an extent and she was the weakest of all of the fairytale maidens, all of them fought back or ran away in their own little ways."

Apple drew silent, staring into space with wide eyes, mouth gaping open as the new revelation fully sunk in.

The woman sighed in exasperation, hefting the stunned girl up in her arms and tucking her into bed.

She had a lot of things to consider herself.

XXX

"Where the hell is she?" Faybelle roared into the darkening forest.

"Well it looks like she's figured out your little trick in finding her Briar." Blondie said holding up Apple's discarded phone.

"This tears it! The moment I see that little blonde puffball I'm gonna do everyone a favor and I'm going to put her to sleep for a hundred years! That'll make that crazy chick happy! The ultimate helpless maiden struck down whilst she bibbity boppity herself all around the trees in despair over her favorite little birdy growing a spine and leaving her because she kept trying to put Raven in a bleeding cage! I swear to Grimm-!" Faybelle continued to rant, black and blue lightning arching from her fingertips.

"Is your not-so-secret girlfriend going to be alright?" Bunny asked serenely.

Briar blushed heavily. "How did you know that she and I have started to-?"

"As the last Wonderlandian on campus I've had nothing delightfully mad in weeks to distract my rather fine-tuned hearing… of course that is to say that I completely, innocently picked up upon it by accident." Bunny smiled benignly.

"Spy remember?" Blondie pointed out.

Bunny put a hand to her heart as if hurt by the accusation. "My dear reporter, I am but a plain and simple school girl, if my homeland wanted a spy then they'd have ample opportunity to find someone more… suitable. Rather silly to have a random little girl do the spying when… oh I don't know they could easily employ the use of any ears that they have to spare… perhaps like the ones affixed to those little cherub statues decorating the balcony of your dorm…"

"You did what?" Blondie demanded outraged.

"Of course that is merely conjecture." Bunny mused making a show of looking at her nails. "It could be true or it could not, seeing as I am just guessing there is no certainty."

As the two continued back and forth and Faybelle continued to rant Briar slumped against a convenient tree and looked up to the sky.

"I've done something to upset one of you higher powers haven't I? That is why I'm being forced to suffer through this! Well I hope that it's been entertaining enough for you because I'm going back to bed and I am going to sleep a good solid night this time!" The girl declared threateningly before stomping determinedly away.

"Hey! Little rosebud! Don't leave me behind!" Faybelle called out the second she noticed her girlfriend making her way down the path. Running past the still bickering reporter and rabbit to catch up to Briar's grumbling side.


	15. Chapter 15

Raven's hair becomes as much of a delightful joke as her being called Prince Hraban Konigin-King, they are careful to keep the presiding royalty's private life private so her people can take delight in the few things that are shown to the public (or heard on the radios) Raven busies herself with showing up to charities for groundbreaking research and inventions and making it a point to travel to the most rural and impoverished areas of both kingdoms helping to hand out radios and installing mirror-net towers so that her people could reconnect with the world as well as gain the opportunity for at the very least a better education via mirror and electronic (her father's new mad scientist friends were coming in handy) means in the face of lack of proper schools.

If she had the spare moment to be honest with herself Raven would admit that the little things like her near monthly changing of hair colors to the people in the backwoods areas of the former Queen Lands doubling over in laughter every single time they found out that the people in other countries were caught between being outright skeptical and utterly in denial over Raven and Hraban being the same person (seeing as how they actually spoke the old tongue they had always known the heir to the throne as Hraban Konigin anyway so it was pretty funny), did make her feel happier, made it all worth it despite her still feeling like she had cruelly abandoned Apple somehow.

Lizzie kept assuring Raven that Bunny said that Apple was perfectly fine (and Bunny always said the same thing whenever Raven would call to check in on the girl), but Raven could always tell that her friend and new ally was verrry intentionally glossing over the boundaries between "she'll live through this" and "her entire world has been completely shattered" and yet despite this Raven still couldn't find it in herself to gather up her old force of will to find out exactly what was going on.

So with Maddie and Alistair's gentle prodding and Chase's noble pleads to Raven's "sense of a warrior" (they were all on Lizzie's side on this) Raven agreed to see the Wonderlandian councilor that they had picked out for her and mostly stopped looking longingly at her former private writing desk (Kitty had been particularly pointed about that one, bluntly saying that it may still be Raven's private rooms but the desk and several other spaces now belonged to Kitty and the cat girl's mother… Raven was still trying to get used to randomly seeing one or the other lounging or prowling about in the early hours in the morning) and tried her best to forcefully move herself forward.

And she would have too by now if it weren't for her cursed bleeding heart.

Raven really shouldn't have been as startled as she was when the others started to (none-too-subtly) introduce her to a few people, beautiful cleverly brilliant people, that are around Raven's age and very much the type of people that make Raven's heart flutter and make her intrigued in all sorts of interesting ways.

Most all of them are Wonderlandian of course, if Raven was ever going to pick a significant other to share the throne with it would be ideal if it were someone from the home team, however there were a couple of notable exceptions ranging from some of the important diplomats and inventors from the monster realm (several of the ones that Raven had met being thousands of years' old which was… both dizzying and rather odd that they had as of yet to reach adulthood even after so much time had passed) to people from her own kingdom.

The suitors weren't pushy about it, and aside from those who came from Wonderland, Raven's band of well-meaning allies didn't let the prospective suitors know that when they were being personally introduced to the Crown Prince they were actually being presented to her as a potential date. It was because of this that Raven didn't immediately put a stop to it all, for all of their meddling her Wonderlandian friends did have some taste and were selective enough in the people that they picked to introduce to her that she genuinely ended up enjoying being chatted up by the brilliant mind of an aspiring mad scientist here or exchanging witty banter of a child of a magistrate there, even having Wonderlandians from Lizzie's future court flirt lightheartedly with her was… refreshing in its own way, for once there was very little talk about fairytales and the conflicts over whether or not to follow destinies, and a great deal of talk about clever ideas and brilliant topics of conversations about everything and nothing all at once.

That was not to say that Raven's friends weren't without their mischievous streaks in all of this, more than once Raven had been minding her own business only to meet surprised gaze for startled gaze with their latest unsuspecting victim.

That was how Raven met Margarete Tampere, daughter of a wizard from one of the capital city's universities and a witch who hailed from a remote village of the steep mountainous regions of the Queen homelands, very active dragon activist and conversationalist, and honors student in one of the top undergraduate programs in the country having skipped so many grades that she didn't even have to bother with the second year in high school.

Of course at the time Raven's first impression of the fellow witch was that the girl had been in the middle of a rant when Maddie and Kitty had transported her into the royal family's private dragon stables and was now highly confused as to how she had ended up in a completely different place than where she had started.

"The frick am I?" Margarete demanded her back turned to Raven as she looked back and forth furiously.

"Did you happen to run into a girl who spoke riddlish with a top hat on her head or a sarcastic cat girl who grins with a surprising number of teeth before you came here?" Raven asked after a moment of shocked silence on her part.

"Both actually how-?" Margarete turned only for her breath to leave her lungs when she spied Raven in the middle of saddling up Nevermore.

"Your highness Crown Prince?" She squeaked, eyes wider than before.

"Hraban or Raven is fine with me given the informal situation." Raven offered awkwardly. "And I do apologize for any inconvenience, my friends subscribe to different ideas on how to introduce me to new people, please don't be offended by it since really they are just worried about me becoming a workaholic and being devoid of a proper social life."

"What?" Margarete demanded and rightfully so.

Raven flinched guiltily. "Er… perhaps I can word that better, I swear there never seems to be a good way of explaining things whenever they do something like this, it's a lot less common here than in Ever After or in Wonderland so…"

And that was how Margarete Tampere met the famous and infamous Raven Queen-King a kind, gentle bumbling fellow witch who often adorably tripped over her own tongue when embarrassed and was of the right sort who had enough room in her heart to not only house dark-scaled dragons in the family stables but also had a fondness for all dragons in general.

As far as first relationships went Margarete supposed that she could definitely have done worse.

XXX

Apple returns to her (surprisingly vexed and covered in bite marks) little friends the day after the Evil Queen had been set free for a second time (though it took an ungodly amount of time extracting the little clingy thing that morning seeing as how Apple had snuck into Raven's former bed, the one that the Evil Queen was now using, and cuddled right up to the slumbering woman in the dead of night).

Fully expecting hell to be raised at the inevitable news of her escape, the Evil Queen constructed a second door into the mirror dimension using Raven's old mirror, only this time the door was not locked and she could pass between both worlds without being locked into either one.

Yet for some reason Apple hadn't squealed on her that day, or the day after that or the day after that.

The Evil Queen may have a difficult time with reading the mood of a room but she was far from stupid; Apple-cheeks may be just as horrified at finding out that she too was a pawn in Snow White's schemes but that hardly meant that the kid wasn't looking for an opportunity to scare up some support for her mother by shouting cheerfully to the rooftops that the Evil Queen has been set free.

The kid did it before what was stopping her from doing it a second time?

After all Apple was far from stupid herself and the fact that she wasn't at all worried at the moment about the Evil Queen-… well going off and doing something evil was very alarming. It could very well mean that the girl was waiting for the Evil Queen to do something, anything to perhaps get her tiny little worldview back to where it used to be, the kid had said as much while muttering to herself in that dusty old attic.

A few weeks went by where the woman deliberated on the issue, it did not escape the Evil Queen's mind that she could have easily done something bad to the kid, after all on the really bad days where Apple-cakes was so out of it that she just sat in a corner and muttered to the voices in her head (a very creepy development for sure) the Evil Queen would come out of her mirror and have to wash and dress the child for bed, some days even coaxing her into actually eating the food that one of the child's little friends left by the door, most nights the girl even going as far as to sneak into the woman's acquired bed (because an actual bed was utter luxury compared to a hard prison floor) and curl into the Evil Queen's side like a kitten, if there was a time to do something evil to an unsuspecting (though mostly uncaring) maiden then it was now.

In the end the Evil Queen decided not to do anything.

It was the best course of action if she was reading the situation right (and since she was looking closely at how her family was acting and attempting to avoid listening to Snow White's stinging attempts to clamber purchase onto her crumbling power she was moderately confident that she was doing the right thing) then not playing into Snowy's old games was the only way now, for the sake of both herself and her family.

Personally she was attempting to get used to the idea herself, Apple-cheeks was certainly thrown when several weeks went by and the princess finally, finally broke out of her depressed stupor long enough to realize that the Evil Queen hadn't done anything evil since she had been released. She was almost just as startled when Apple briefly observed that the Evil Queen had discarded her usual crown and flowing gown with a simple black hooded cloak, a long dark tunic, and black fitted trousers before getting embarrassed for some reason over the issue and going quiet.

It was several days before the girl spoke about it again.

"So you aren't going to do anything? No revenge against my mother? The person who put you in this situation? You're just… going to hang out here?" Apple queried one day while she was doing her homework (practicing, and doing surprisingly well, fake smiling at her personal mirror). "What about your dream of ruling all of the fairytale realms?"

"The evilest thing that I can do to your mother at this point in time is to sit back and not lift a finger, and since I no longer run the risk of being forgotten or having my family harmed for not "being born of the right breeding" then there is no need for me to take over anything… besides that, actually having to rule over everybody would be a pain in the ass, this is much simpler." The woman hummed from her place on Raven's old bed, pretending to be engrossed in an online mad scientist journal (the open availability of material all thanks in part to her former husband).

"…And what will you do when my mom comes to see you? She will you know… she's already told me the last time I spoke with her that she's counting on you somehow becoming so enraged by what's going on that you'll break out and…" Apple hesitates.

"Do bad things. Make her look good in comparison. Scare everybody into line. Yeah I get the picture." The woman snorted in irritated boredom.

"Rescue her… she said that you will do bad things and… rescue her." Apple corrected in a small voice. "She says that you love the story too much."

Many things were usually lost on the woman as per natural course… however this time the subtle implications were a bit… easier for her to read.

The Evil Queen sighed, setting down her borrowed mirror-pad. "I stopped loving your mother a long time ago Apple-cakes."

"But did she ever stop loving you?" Apple demands turning around in her chair. "Grimm almighty she's never stopped talking about you since this all started! She keeps going on and on about how you'll make everything right again and how everybody is going to regret everything once they see the angry state that you'll be in and how you'll swoop in and rescue Raven from her father and-… she keeps saying that once we get Raven back that she and I can be sisters! Sisters! Never mind the fact that my… that the feelings left between Raven and I would make that highly inappropriate, but for my mother, who never could look Raven in the eye before, let alone speak to her if she didn't have to wants to become Raven's-… foster mother-…" Apple bites her lip and looks away.

When the girl looks back she is breathless and clutching at her hair. "My story can happen if we get Raven back she says, we can be one big happy family she says, she's so sure that you two can come to some sort of understanding in the current light of things and that… that it can maybe be just like old times between you two, and that Raven as my sister can be my best frienemy for the rest of my life." The girl looks both mortified and ashamed to admit this.

The woman sighs heavily rubbing the space between her brows. "She threw me away little cheeks; I may not be an expert on emotions or why people do the things that they do but I do know that throwing your ex-lover in prison in her old high school where the two of you met and leaving her there all but forgotten save for when you need her to make you look good in the public eye- that's not love… or at least I hope it's not love, because that would be…"

"Unhealthy?" Apple pipes up.

"I was going to say odd but yeah, that works too." The woman admits.

"Well… what if… she resents you for finding someone else? For marrying the Good King instead of taking Raven and leaving him behind?" Apple theorizes and the Evil Queen is utterly lost on why the girl is so insistent on deciphering her mother's former love life but whatever. Apple was strange on principle these days. "What if she did all of that… because she can't get over you and she is angry about it. Angry that you were able to move on… and she wasn't."

"I'm utterly lost on things like that but… I suppose even if that is true that would be even more reason for me to do my best to keep out of her reach. Whatever feelings I still harbored for your mother have long since died the day she attempted to contact me after Raven's birth." The Evil Queen stated truthfully with a shrug of her shoulders. "I mean why should I stick my neck out for someone who's only interested in causing me harm for simply… loving someone else?"

Apple is silent for a long time after that.

"Mom'll still come for you." The girl eventually murmured quietly in warning. "And she's not going to take no for an answer."

The Evil Queen sighed, feeling tired all of a sudden.

"Yeah… I already know that kiddo, I know that she will all too well."


	16. Chapter 16

"Airship schools to get to extremely remote areas or to bus kids from those areas to government funded boarding schools?" Ashlynn whistled low, looking at the newspapers that Hunter's parents had recently taken to periodically send him from home (the lines of Huntsman's coming from both the old Queen and King realms). "Raven's doing pretty good for herself and her quest to help bring back her kingdom to its former glory I must say."

Hunter looked nervous and guilty like he always did when his girlfriend said Raven instead of Hraban out loud, looking around the empty lawn as if someone was going to jump up and shout at any moment (which was not an uncommon thing to happen at this school…).

"All she did was change her hair color sweetie, and there are lots of people at this school who live in her kingdom and have relatives, like your sweet old gran, who speak the old language so it really shouldn't be rocket science to spot that this girl in the papers and our Raven are one and the same." Ashlynn patted her boyfriend's hand soothingly.

"Yes but people here- save for you gorgeous of course-" Hunter is quick to assure. "Have always glassed over us non-royalty and anything beyond our destinies, I bet if you went out and asked a bunch of those Royals where they think my family, Ramona and Cerise's families, Cedar's family, or Ginger's family lives they'd probably say Ever After not the _Lands of the Witch Kings_. And besides that not very many people here are even looking into what Hraban Konigin stands for, to them it's just a name. I don't think that lots of people want to believe that they are the same person actually… it seems to me that a great many people here appear to want to hang on to the belief that Raven is hidden somewhere far, far away and that when she recuperates from her illness or is found she'll come back to school! They actually, honestly believe that Raven has a cousin named Hraban King even though it is well known back home that the extended family of the residing monarchy wouldn't touch the homeland, let alone admit to being related to the dreaded Evil Queen and they all live too far away anyway."

"I will admit that a surprising number of people still believe the whole "cousins" theory and that the whole thing is ridiculous." Ashlynn allowed. "But that doesn't explain why you guys have been so jittery with trying to keep up that idea in other people's heads."

"It's… it's because we love her Ash." Hunter coughed awkwardly. "Not romantically of course- at least not in my case- but… at the end of the day she is our monarch, the heir to the throne of our home, and she's a really good one too Ash, she works with us, she protects us, why do you think so many of us from her kingdom became Rebels right along with her when she started the Rebellion? I know that everybody just assumed a while back that we were all going to end up serving Apple and treating her as our queen while we all threw Raven away and left her to rot inside a mirror somewhere but… Apple never was our queen or our princess… _Raven is_. The Evil Queen may have been many things but she did treat the people from her and her husband's homelands very well, however we preferred Raven because she was always her father's daughter and before the rebellion she had been willing to abdicate the throne if negative attention ever came down on us and made things worse at home just because she existed, she earned our respect and dedication on Legacy Day and now that she is free… she's given a lot back to us… just like a real monarch should do for her people."

Ashlynn is silent for a moment, thinking. "So all this time Raven has been thinking about not just her future but the futures of you guys as well and now that she's in a position of power you guys want to help keep her there. And the best way to do that is to keep people ignorant to the fact that she's in power now?"

"It's been working for the past year." Hunter shrugs in apologetic amusement. "Although to be honest we are all kind of surprised that all of this has been working out so well…"

"Almost too well." Ashlynn agrees with a sigh. "However on a different note… is that why you've been avoiding Apple like she's got the plague? And why you've all made me swear on my favorite pair of shoes and on your pet Pesky that I wouldn't point all this out to Apple? " _For her own good and for the sake of Raven's health_ " I believe is how you phrased it?"

Hunter gulped realizing that he just walked into a trap. "Ash you can't honestly believe that what they had before was healthy!"

"I never said that I'm disagreeing with your decision sweetie." Ashlynn calmly assured. "However the fact remains that _I still care_ for Apple as my friend and I am deeply concerned with her current state of mind now that Raven has gone away, it would appear that Raven was something of a stabilizer for Apple's worldview and now with her gone and Snow White turning out to be the true villain among us it is now _Apple's health_ that I fear for. What she may turn into if she still allows her mother to influence her every move is also a concern of mine…"

Hunter shuttered, lately Apple had become withdrawn from the rest of the school and once or twice he had stumbled upon Apple in some deserted corner arguing with herself, saying things that were both achingly heartbreaking for her apparent "good" personality and deeply disturbing from what he could see from her "bad" one.

Hunter still had nightmares about that.

"We need to find a way to convince Apple to cut her mother out of her life." Ashlynn announced out of the blue her voice emotionlessly dispassionate.

Hunter startled, staring at his girlfriend in utterly shocked surprise. "Ashlynn? But- but I thought that you guys had this… aversion to going up against… _her_ in her own kingdom! Isn't this… treason or something?"

"I have my own people's wellbeing to consider, despite me not following through with my story I will still become the next queen to my kingdom." Ashlynn fixed the boy with a look that was both severe and incredibly fond. "I will admit that such an endeavor will have to be conducted with extreme care seeing as how Snow White does not take mercy upon those who oppose her, however as long as she still has a hold on Apple there is a real risk of things getting very ugly for everyone very quickly and this time around I don't think that even Raven would be able to bring back the Apple we all know and care for. If we don't sever Apple's sense of duty to her mother and Snow White's reach on Apple soon who knows what lengths, they will go to keep Snow White the fairest of them all."

"So we're going up against the queen of Ever After, who is even now just about the most powerful monarch in all the known realms." Hunter licked his lips nervously but nodded all the same. "Yeah you're right, Snow White has to be stopped, there is no other choice in it really. Where do you think we should start?"

"We?" Ashlynn blinked in surprise. "You are willing to stand beside me in what could very well turn out to be a highly dangerous endeavor?"

"Always." The boy takes her hand, his eyes holding such sincerity and loyalty that Ashlynn's heart feels as though it's about to give out. "Gorgeous Ash… Raven may be my home's ruling monarch but as long as you'll let me… I'll always follow you into whatever adventure comes our way."

Ashlynn gives the boy a wide, sunny grin and moves forward to gift him with a kiss.

XXX

Briar has to threaten to cut Faybelle off (off of what Blondie and Bunny agree that they _really, really_ don't want to know specifics) but they all eventually agree to keep the photograph and the letters a secret in respect to Raven and Apple.

Ashlynn and (surprisingly) Hunter volunteer to help defend Apple from the increasingly resentful villain and Rebel population in the school, everyone hanging around the girl during school and after school activity hours almost like a guard detail (Even through her more unhinged moments where she sits, glassy eyed, muttering to the voices in her head- Hunter is still terribly frightened of her in that state but he still manages to stick close).

They drag Apple to the new councilor and whatever she and the Wonderlandian talk about seems to help a little with improving the princess's mood on the days that Snow White doesn't call.

When the queen does call off class hours (Giles agrees with the social workers on the issue that all calls the queen makes to her daughter are to be monitored and done outside of school hours, so Apple's phone had been confiscated and she was given a special new one that- at her councilor's insistence- only allowed calls from a select few friends and emergency authority personnel) Ashlynn or Bunny try to get the call to break off (which Giles quietly allows since he's appalled by the queen on sheer principle now) by lying through their teeth and urgently calling out that Apple is needed to solve this minor crisis or to attend that party, it usually works, the queen's end goal is for her daughter to maintain ultimate popularity after all and as long as she believes that Apple is doing her best to maintain that.

Apple allows the intervention with the same bleak indifferent air she's been wearing a lot lately, however she often has to excuse herself to lie down alone in her room to decompress from what little demands to be even more perfect than before. Whatever she does in her room seems to work in making her be able to function day-to-day life, even improving her mood lots of times. They didn't know why, but it was working, Apple wasn't going off shouting about re-releasing the Evil Queen or extracting revenge (anymore) and that was all that mattered.

XXX

Apple felt like a bad person.

There seemed to be no escape from the feeling, everything she had done, everything she was currently doing, felt like a betrayal of some sort, the only thing that changed was who she was betraying; Raven or Snow White.

cuddling close to the Evil Queen in the middle of the night after one of those bad days was somehow better despite the fact of acting as though the witch were her nanny or even… a surrogate mother.

Impossibly the Evil Queen had allowed it, allowed Apple to lean on her, dress her, wash her hair, and talk her through complicated bouts of confusion on how to act, how to live day to day life at school, and it was that tolerance that acted almost as permission for Apple to betray both Raven and Snow White, and thus far this round of having the Evil Queen newly freed wasn't hurting anyone.

There is a horrible part of Apple that's hoping that it's all an act again, that wherever the older witch slinks off to during a good portion of the day there is an evil plot being hatched for the good guys to defeat and then Raven can come back and everything will go back to normal. That maybe Apple should tell her mother about the Evil Queen being free and maybe the two women would join forces and make Apple's life all better again and maybe Snow White would be right; maybe they can all be one big happy family and-

The thoughts screech to a halt in Apple's brain, Raven's petrified and tearful vestige coming to mind back when the witch all but confessed that she was irreversibly in love with Apple.

As time marches uncaringly forward that lingering, ugly thought stays just that, a thought, and the more time passes Apple realizes that she is too tired to really ever see that happen… not that she'd ever think that'll work, for one; Raven would never forgive her, and for another… Apple is slowly beginning to realize that having the Evil Queen at the mercy of Snow White would be just too cruel for Apple to ever tell her mother that the Evil Queen has been broken out, that while Snow White has been busy attempting to restore her peer's fear and adoration of her, the Evil Queen has been the one to be… well _there_ for Apple! Even bothering to celebrate holidays with her and give her a gift for Apple's birthday…

A day that Snow White had forgotten, not even a phone call (she even checked with the social worker, a person she normally tried to ignor, on that one).

But her dad had remembered to call her, Prince Charming the ever dutiful and caring father tried to call as often as he could but more often than not he was far too busy to actually call so he would send her a happy picture and an apology, telling her that he loved her, that if he could convince his wife he'd take Apple out of school and shelter her if necessary.

Apple normally rolled her eyes and tossed the message pad away (they had taken her old phone and her councilor and the social worker were monitoring or censoring over all of her parent's messages in an attempt to protect her from them) when she saw any messages from her father, it wasn't _he_ that she wanted to speak to, to gain approval from, it was _Snow White_ , so she had ended up weeping heartbrokenly, bitter guilty tears streaming down her cheeks the afternoon that the Evil Queen had commented on how Apple had such a thoughtful father and that " _old wimp of a Prince Charming_ " had turned out at least decent enough to send Apple a gift and attempt to make time in his no doubt busy (being worked as a slave) schedule to send Apple a little something happy every other day. The princess goes back through her messages, feeling like the most horrible person ever.

Weeks passed and yet the Evil Queen still stayed with Apple, seemingly to be the sanest between the two of them (and wasn't that ironic) caring for the girl without very much token complaint, acting in a way that… filled something that had been missing inside Apple's chest… something that Apple didn't want to look too closely at, because if she did the girl found herself longing to see the white and gold clad figure of the fairest of them all in the place of this different woman- looking younger and freer by the day- under the shadow of a hood and adorned in flowing simple black robes.

"Did you talk to Raven today?" Apple asks while the Evil Queen tucks her into Apple's bed, today had been tolerable enough that the princess didn't feel the gripping need to hide into the older woman's robed side for the night.

"My daughter is well, she and her father have mentioned of looking into ways to bring me back home without causing old Milton Grimm a fatal heart attack but I asked them to hold off on that until Snowball stops trying to keep using me as a valid excuse for treating my family and kingdom so terribly." The Evil Queen says pulling the covers up to Apple's chin. "My daughter seems relieved that I've been so approving of her current antics."

"Is… is Raven happy?" Apple asks, she's stopped asking if the woman knows of Raven's whereabouts weeks ago.

And unreadable look crosses the evil Queen's face. "She's living a happier life without her destiny, though…" The woman hesitates. "She still worries about how you are faring, I'm afraid that her little Wonderland allies are being rather stubborn in telling her anything, aside from assuring her to the fact that you are still alive, I wasn't able to tell her much either, with that adorable little rabbit in the room, but she seemed to have relaxed when I told her that all is better than what it could have been."

That is a very significant admission Apple knows, the Evil Queen rarely talks to Apple about what she knows about Raven aside from the bare minimum: that Raven is happy and that the Evil Queen is proud of her.

And for good reason! Apple is shamed as she thinks it.

"Mom tried calling again." Apple reports, feeling the need to offer something in return, a tinge of sadness in her tone. "She asked me about the councilor that Briar and the others have me going to. And why my grades have slipped from above average to average. I lied… I said that I had been having nightmares about what you'd do if you ever got mad enough to just… break free all of a sudden. She- she seemed happy that I said that. She said that I should not fear that outcome so much to let it mess with my perfect grades and if the councilor helps continue to see them but that I really should be looking forward to seeing you get that angry and cause all of that destruction because then I'd be able to see what a true villain looks like again and better appreciate it this time so that I can… _help_ Raven when we get her back…"

She had expected the Evil Queen to get angry but instead the woman seemed nonplussed. "She's still on that old song and dance?" The witch rolled her eyes, hardly impressed, ruffling Apple's bradded hair as she did so (Apple found that she liked it better when the Evil Queen braded her hair for the night instead of Apple having to use hair curlers just like Snow White would do). "Don't worry about your grades kiddo, trust me you are doing above average by even passing them, and if any of your teachers starts giving you a hard time I can always stealth hex them into being nicer to you."

Apple knew that shouldn't have made her feel better but it did.

"Why have you been looking so… young lately?" Apple asked to distract herself from the warm fuzzy feeling of having the woman being so maternally protective of her ( _just like a real mother should be,_ a resentful voice hisses in her skull but she resolutely, mentally bats it away).

At that the Evil Queen merely shrugged. "Witches live hundreds of years naturally, no use in looking older, wiser, and even more terrifying when there is no one to impress and the whole evil gig being a total dud. It's not like it matters anymore anyway, you at least aren't so strict about looking the fairest of them all while standing beside me all alone in front of the mirror."

That statement stayed with Apple for around an hour before the princess eased into sleep.

XXX

Traditionally the Queen royal family held a long and widely known affinity towards dragons of all species, dragons were even the chosen guardian animal in the royal seal, right next to ravens and wolves (As a result the name Raven was a popular baby name in the family, along with variations on Fang, feather, and Claw). The descendants of numerous species that have been the favored steads or companion animals to Evil Queens of the past eventually morphed into royal families of their own, the bloodlines of which meticulously maintained and kept track of, Nevermore herself was the direct descendant of the very first Evil Queen's most favored steed.

Before the kingdom had fallen onto hard times the resident dragon populations within the realm were kept extremely protected and birth and death rates carefully recorded, there were harsh penalties for illegal hunting and trafficking of the beasts as foreign exotic pets (many species of dragon were still considered wild and therefore did not make good pets but people still paid handsomely for the most dangerous and rarest to keep locked up to show off to their rich friends), and while in charge as the interim monarch Raven's father had managed to make it clear enough that despite the Queen's incarceration the land's laws were still to be abided by and not under any circumstances were they to be broken or changed by outsiders, any outsiders, not even Snow White could have that power (not long after Raven came back home she had come to the realization that Snow White and her father had actually been semi-hostilely circling each other politically for years! Putting a whole new prospective on why her father had been so outwardly joyous back when Raven had nervously made a call home in front of a glowering Headmaster days after Legacy Day, the old man had been hoping that the Good King would crack down and set his daughter back onto the path of destiny only to be dismayed when the first words out of the king's grinning mouth were _"I heard that you turned your back on the story and I am so proud of you!"_ before dissolving into praising a relieved Raven some more in latanic- to which the Headmaster was a bit rusty in but understood enough that his hopes were dashed… not long after that Raven was allowed more frequent visits with her mother however that avenue to try to turn her evil didn't work out either).

However the Good King could only do so much in not only running two separate kingdoms but also having to deal with one that was under constant threat and isolation from other realms (Snow White's allies or admirers Raven was later informed from the palace staff).

But now the kingdoms were a united force in not only name and state but also by the use of many, many outdoor magical portals and indoor portal mirrors in train stations (New, improved, and far faster thanks in part to mad science creating levitating cars on special tracks so that one could travel by train from the most remote northern island in the former Queen kingdom to the nearest train station where one had to simply walk through one of the stone arches with the indoor portal mirror (or travel to the nearest city with a portal arch) and reach the farthest southern tip of the former King kingdom within a few hours for work or school and be able to come back home in time for supper. Only a few major lines had been contracted within days of Raven's coronation and fully functional in the present day but the major success of the ones that had been completed had convinced the government to find ways in connecting everyone (the resident troll and gargoyle populations helping greatly in the speedy construction, they did it fast and did it right and sneered at the pampered dwarves in Ever After's kingdom… there was a long ancestral feud between the two races of Ever After dwarf and gargoyle or rock-based trolls, which was not helped any when their Queen was imprisoned and the dwarves from Ever After readily declared trolls in the Queen territories and King realm as "evil abominations", Raven figured troll pride over building better shiny things was better than attempting to declare war on the lands several small kingdoms over)!

Raven was proud of her father for at the very least helping in making both kingdoms culturally stable enough, and governmentally similar enough that being combined had worked so well in the first place (the fact that the majority of the populations found common ground in their despise of Snow White and her profane "alcohol-hating" self, helped a lot too) aided by the flow of immigrants from Wonderland and all the new jobs being created in the monumental task to get the country up and running again.

Suffice to say many foreign lords and ladies (who were now jumping ship from the "we love the fairest Snow White" bandwagon with devastating speed) attempting to make nice-nice with the suddenly very powerful, and growing more technologically advanced by the day, brand new kingdom, now found themselves rapidly (so rapidly that even Raven felt like she was getting whiplash, her father and the Queen of Hearts were suspiciously smug about it but Raven found that she didn't harbor enough curiosity to investigate how exactly they had managed _that_ little economic miracle, nor the time seeing as how Raven's current job was to hop from place to place helping out isolated areas in one part of the kingdom and being present in ritzy emporiums and fascinating invention reveals, by showing up and drawing the media's attention to the things) needing said new kingdom's backing in the hopes that they could escape the media's disapproval and Snow White's willingness to drag everyone down with her, even using her former allies to make herself appear better (nothing new there).

The kingdom was already getting more than enough trade with Rebel fairytale allied kingdoms, Wonderland, and the monster dimension and the royal family and the government was more concerned with rebuilding the country as one united entity and promoting in-kingdom made goods being sold inside native shops to keep boosting their own economy onto stable ground so there really wasn't much need for the _United Lands of the Witch Kings_ (now known as the Rebellious Republic of the UL of the WK- which still didn't do much to help shorten the name so most people including the royal family just said ULWK, or in Raven's case _my homeland_ sufficed just fine) to attempt to make allies with them… or interact with them at all.

And yet they still showed up to the occasional kingdom summit or charity ball hosted in the capital city.

Uninvited.

And they refused to leave.

So after about an hour of arguing with security (every single damn time because the royal family still held out hope that maybe _this time_ they'd just pack up and go instead of putting up such an unholy fuss) they were begrudgingly let in after dinner to the unimpressed room full of actual _invited_ guests.

Which to most of the fairytale royalty wasn't an unusual occurrence (even though it was considered extremely rude in most other places) especially since uninvited guests were just in due course back in high school, however many well-to-do natives and foreign dignitaries weren't too keen on quite a few particular royals who had been well known to conduct illegal and borderline illegal hunting and business in their lands in the past (it was easier for citizens to consider themselves as one people when they were standing off against a common enemy).

Particularly with the lovely Margarete Tampere, who loved her beloved homeland and its native people and natural beauty so much that she took the time (along with the resources that her new gleeful Wonderlandian allies gave her) to find out which fairytale royalty did or did not break laws and which to put under strict scrutiny, leading the charge.

"Check it out she's staring down Humpty Dumpty so hard he's actually shaking in his boots and I think that the representative sent from Ever After just broke down crying! Can we keep her? Please tell me that we get to keep her!" Kitty cackled in glee, appearing right next to Raven who had been tactfully attempting to politely and respectfully not get too close to the Evil Fairy or to Little Red Riding Hood (who was proudly, or ominously depending how you looked at it, wearing a full red cloak and dress in the style usually seen worn by the native lycanthropy tribes and was showing off the slight bump of her pregnant belly and looking at several confused fellow fairytales defiantly) and the Big Bad Wolf (who was always standing protectively somewhere close by).

"That's gotta be the third one she made cry tonight right?" Raven hummed in amusement, still keeping an eye on her surroundings. "Well this is a charity for the Striped Forest National Park and while collecting rooster eggs isn't illegal with the right permit and with only a certain number being collected per person who won the official lottery for the permit each year, using one's status as a minor Ever After royal lord to intimidate the officials into letting one get away with no permit and going over the individual limit outside of the actual collecting season is pretty low… It's a good thing Humphrey isn't here to see this." Raven sighed at the thought.

While the kids from school used to either fear _her_ or respect _her_ on some level their parents… still didn't feel either towards her or her father, most taking their fear and anger that they had for the _Evil Queen_ out on them by conducting anything from minor to borderline extreme offenses in the former Queen lands and her people.

From a psychological standpoint it was not a surprising reaction to being afraid however that did not excuse the fact that these were grown adults with extremely important responsibilities to at least act like forgiving and kind nobility, especially in other countries.

"Why is he here anyway?" Raven asked, relaxing when she spotted the Evil Fairy stoically chatting up a type of previously unknown species of fairy creature from the monster realm (the woman saw every instance where she wasn't invited to an event as an automatic invitation for her and her allies to attend and since the ruling family had no reservations towards the villain community as a whole they were always included on the guest list and given assigned seating at banquet tables and a warm welcoming just in case they did decide to stop by). The woman became known to attend these gatherings in the hope that she could better sway the Good King and the Crown Prince into awarding Faybelle the Evil Queen role.

And for the moment she no longer had to worry about the other two fairytales in attendance; Raven's father jovially chatting up Red Riding Hood and Professor Bad Wolf (their story, along with a few other fairytale stories, were actually native to Raven's maternal homeland and therefore they were fully welcome to any and all private events hosted by the royal family as personal guests even when the country was combined and turned away from its fairytale roots). "I thought that the Dumpties' were holding firm with their loyalties to their homeland's queen Snow White."

Kitty shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine on that one, at least the Charming's were civilized enough to request that they be invited to any events that my queen and your father put on, they seem to want to publically show their support for you, seems like they weren't too pleased with their daughter being brushed off as a true Charming for her ability to wake Apple up."

"Events where I will be conveniently absent right?" Raven hedged carefully, while she and the current fairytales held a mutual unspoken understanding to politely avoid each other and pretend that they didn't recognize Hraban and Raven as the same girl (some were still under the impression that Hraban was Raven's cousin but that belief was slowly beginning to dissolve) however Raven had yet to see any of her former classmates aside from the Wonderlandians and the witch knew that the Charmings always tried to bring offspring along to parties in other countries to better develop their international relationship skills and from past experience Raven knew that her generation held no reservations towards coming up and demanding explanations no matter what the setting was.

"Nervous about what would happen if Dexter met the protective Mrs.?" Kitty teased, Margarete took no prisoners when it came to those who tried to use being in the same family as the Evil Queen against Raven, standing up for her fellow witch in ways that only Maddie ever dared to do in the past, then went several steps further by bluntly calling out racism and bigotry wherever she saw it. Humiliating the bad talker in the process (a skill she had learned from her father's staff meetings in wizard academia).

"Nervous that Daring and Darling will kick my butt for breaking their brother's heart." Raven corrected. "Margarete may agree with you guys in thinking that Dexter had been in the wrong and I had every right to break up with him the way that I did, however she said that she was hardly going to shove his face in it if they ever did meet and I'm fairly certain that she'd be nothing but polite to him really. He's not a rude or mean guy so she'd have no reason to show him her temper."

Kitty rolled her eyes, obviously more entertained by the notion of a hypothetical catfight. "Sure you just keep telling yourself that." Before disappearing to cause chaos somewhere else.

Margarete caught her eye, waving cheekily as she left a twitching Humpty Dumpty and a sniffling representative in the tender care of some very unimpressed politicians, in favor of nearly skipping over to Raven and taking the Crown Prince's hands in her own. "Hello sweetie." She greeted, meeting Raven's besotted gaze with her own.

"Playing nice with others dearest?" Raven teased coyly.

"Always." Margarete sniffed proudly. "They're the ones who want to come to where they are not wanted in such a rude manner I might as well do my duty for the Rebellion Wilderness Foundation to make very clear what big jerks they are acting like right now. I swear they always seem so _surprised_ that this place is in fact inhabited by a culture with real people in it."

"Don't take it personally, the tale of Snow White casts a long shadow." Raven assured. "Lots of people tend to be surprised to discover that our homeland was so big in the first place, they always seem to assume that I come from a tiny kingdom that I'd be forever imprisoned in if I managed to escape being sent to mirror prison with my mother for poisoning their fairest princess-… don't ask me why they thought that when they all knew I would have just been doing my job, my dad knows more about it and frankly I rather not know too much about it either."

"Life and politics of royalty with too much time on their hands right?" Margarete raised a blonde brow.

"Pretty much." Raven shrugged unable to deny it. It was sadly true seeing as most of the classes offered at her old school were pretty useless in preparing people for post-fairytale life as Raven quickly learned her first few weeks of being tutored to become the Crown Prince, people cared more about whether or not you got things done and made their lives comfortable and safe rather than how well you could faint and stay helplessly still in the face of a hungry dragon or a mugger.

Margarete shook her head in exasperation, tucking a lock of Raven's pink hair behind her ear. "If I asked you for a dance would I be accused of unnatural witchcraft or just common flagrant molestation of a monarch?"

"Does it matter?" Raven snorted.

"It hasn't thus far." Margarete grinned leading Raven to the floor below them where the other, _invited_ guests were dancing the night away.


	17. Chapter 17

"Things sure are changing around here." Briar observed as she watched Cedar skip by in her new, fleshy body, the princess couldn't help but admit to herself that this new "mad science" stuff did appear to work out like a dream… even though one could see the newly healed scarring, where the doctors had stitched the specially grown fleshy parts together to create Cedar's new body…

The girl at least was ecstatically happy, to be a real girl and that was all that mattered, Briar told herself firmly.

Faybelle flinched slightly away from a blissfully unaware Cedar, the fairy's pupil's dilating until the entire visible surface appeared black and her pointed ears curled back in terrified suspicion as the newly real girl reached out a still healing, stitched up and scarred hand to accept the strawberry that Hunter held out for her to take as she skipped on her way.

Briar elbowed her girlfriend in the side, hard. "Oh stop it's not bad enough for you to be making that face." She hissed once Cedar was outside of hearing range.

"They grew her flesh and bones and guts in a vat Briar, and then stitched it all together and put her spirit into a donated brain!" Faybelle whimpered like a bewildered cat, clutching her sore side. "It's not natural!"

Okay it was pretty creepy; the princess would admit that much to herself… just not out loud, and especially not to Faybelle. "Geeze would you just grow up? It's mad science, it's supposed to be different from the magic we're used to."

"A _vat_ Briar!" Faybelle hissed in desperation, pupils still wide and horrified.

"I think that it's kind of cool." Ashlynn grinned in a way that made Faybelle flick her paranoid gaze from Cedar's retreating back to the other princess at the table. "And useful too, I've already submitted the descriptions of a few of our animals who came into our care because they're missing limbs into the _Inter-dimensional Wildlife and Mad Creatures Society_ and asked them if they could consider placing our charges into their experimental program of giving wild animals an enhanced chance to return to their natural habitats in Ever After- er with Apple's permission after all the other issues are taken care of…" The princess coughed looking sheepishly at a quiet Apple (she was always quiet these days).

"Uh hmm." Apple nodded distractedly into her soup. "Snakes with wings, cats with scorpion tails and other things."

"No dear I believe that's more undead taxidermy and science-voodoo reconfiguration." Ashlynn corrected serenely, looking to Hunter for clarification and to Faybelle's (and Briar's) horror he actually _considers_ that sentence for a thoughtful second, before nodding his own head. "And I do believe the latter has more to do with summoning and shaping through magic than with stiches and flesh."

"Ah yes, very fascinating." Apple continues on, her eyes glazed over slightly (again not an uncommon expression to be seen on her face these days).

This time Briar doesn't try to be polite, narrowing her own eyes in suspicion over her friends while allowing Faybelle to half hide behind her. The Fairy having yet to catch on to the sudden Mad Science craze running amok in the halls of the school (much to a certain Headmaster's irritation and to his brother's curious delight), Faybelle herself distinctly feeling that it was all far too creepy for words.

"She's up to something this reporter knows it! I will find out the truth to the sudden disappearance of Cerise Hood and Ramona Wolf, an entire fairytale extinguished in the hours of the night-"

"I'm still here Blondie." Hunter called out irritably to the blonde speaking in hushed tones into her phone.

"-Save for Hunter the Huntsman of course…" Blondie coughed; embarrassed that she had forgotten that his family had ties to the tale of Little Red Riding Hood too.

"Thank you for the mention." The boy called going back to his lunch.

"They went back to their home country Blondie, their parents turned Rebel and since Hunter doesn't want to do a story anyway there is no reason for the fairytale to continue." Briar sighs, Faybelle is still eyeing the room suspiciously and making little chitterling noises at what is no doubt yet another example of "creepy unnatural sciencey stuff" going on (most likely Humphrey and his friend Tiffany Muffet playing with their shared imported junior bio-robotic set with the faux organ pumps and wire neural networks). "Nothing is suspicious about that."

"Ah ha! That's where you're wrong my friend!" Blondie announces, finger pointed up in the air, a nearly insane gleam in her one narrowed eye and bright smirk. "You see because they have barely contacted anybody outside of their roommates since they've moved away! So that just leaves the question regarding how the spy knows that they are doing just fine even though she barely knew them!"

"Spy?" Ashlynn asks.

"Bunny Blanc." Apple informs helpfully into her orange juice (she's been trying to wean herself off of her addiction to apple based products lately).

"They really are doing fine Blondie." Hunter tries to assure soothingly. "My mother's family is from the same region as they are and I can assure you that they're just fine."

Actually his mother had called him up to announce that the Big Bad Wolf had quit his job and got a new one at a newly built school in the homeland, that he and Red Riding Hood and moved in together, and had their _second_ marriage ceremony (everyone was bewildered since they had all been unaware of the _first marriage ceremony_ ) and that apparently Cerise and Ramona were sisters! Like related sisters, who shared the same mother and father and that they had a brother or sister already on the way.

It had been quite the interesting phone call, filled with many " _What?'s_ ", " _Are you sure?'s_ ", and a very memorable " _how did that happen?_ " to which his mother dryly asked if he needed to be re-educated on _that_ particular talk, and he had blushed and promptly shut up while doing his utmost to scrub the mental images from his brain.

"And you know this for a fact do you?" Blondie eyed the boy suspiciously.

He had told Cedar to relay to Cerise that he was happy for her (albeit very confused) and good luck with the new baby. Cerise had responded with a photo of her parent's second wedding and an ultrasound image of little Binx Hooded-Wolf, her unborn baby sister.

"I'd go as far to say that I'm extremely confident." He assured vaguely.

"Then tell me what the spy's involvement in this is!" Blondie demanded, pausing for a second to add. "Please? It's been driving me crazy how she's been able to elude my surveillance and sleuthing so easily."

"Part of her powers." Apple mumbled distantly, forcing another swallow of orange juice, eyes trying their best not to stray longingly towards Faybelle's apple juice and apple pie. "She can manipulate time to a degree and open up portals to and from Wonderland and several other pocket dimensions."

"Really?" Blondie looked surprised, and distressingly intrigued. "Well I suppose that explains a lot… say do you think she'd let me hire her? You know as an occasional mercenary spy or something? With skills like that I'd find the latest scoops a lot faster no doubt!"

"No!" Faybelle hissed, covering one hand protectively over her dessert as she did so (Apple still had the occasional feral outburst, and for the most part it usually happened when her resolve weakened to the point to where she just had to have something with apples in it, Faybelle has already been bitten three times ever since they had managed to find Apple after her first, and still the worst episode thus far, feral reversion). "The last thing this place needs is an unstoppable alliance between a nosy gossip and my roommate, who has a surprisingly sadistic streak when you ruffle her fur the wrong way! There'd be no privacy for the rest of us to actually do stuff!"

"But general villainy is still accepted at this school." Blondie assumed, blinking blankly.

Faybelle and Briar both blushed. "That's not the kind of stuff I want to get away with!" The fairy gritted out. "And she's already hopped in at the wrong time twice this month!"

"Hopped in on what?" Hunter asks baffled.

"Don't worry about it sweetie- can you please help me with the clasp to this necklace? I just can't quite get the catch to open, they make these things so darn small!" Ashlynn kindly held out said necklace, the look on her face signaling to Hunter to take the distraction and save himself the horror of Faybelle's answer (not an uncommon thing for either or both to do for each other ever since Faybelle and Briar semi-privately came out to their closest friends about the whole dating thing).

"No prob, I got you babe." Hunter drops the subject loyally.

"I'll catch the spy up to something one of these days…!" Blondie mutters to herself, looking quite pleased at the thought of a challenge.

There's a soft BOOM from someone's first attempts at mad science reacting unexpectedly on the other side of the room, followed by surprised cackling and disconcerting giggles. Faybelle flinches and sinks down in her seat, grabbing her pie protectively, while her wide eyes twitch terrorized around the room.

"Things felt a lot saner with Raven around." Briar glares balefully at the ceiling as if filing a mental complaint with whatever higher powers were at work.

"Yes." Apple agrees in monotone, giving up in her attempt to spot Faybelle's food and instead stares blankly at a small linin towel with an image of a certain stylized Crown Prince witch (with black hair for this one, the image came with several different hair color choices in respect (and in good humor) to said witch's preference to change her hair color regularly) holding up a pretty red apple and the words: _Rebellious Poisoned Apple Orchards, Bewitchingly Delicious_ , that someone (Duchess trying to be passive aggressively mean) "gave" her.

Apple kept it, despite the initial urge to throw it in Duchess's face (Actually that was the reaction that the other girl had wanted since Duchess had actually gotten a set of the things for herself and… well now her set was incomplete), for some reason the image looked an awful lot like Raven and Apple was sure that if she was up to her usual level of thinking then that niggling feeling in the back of her mind, the feeling that told her that she was clearly missing something obvious, would have revealed itself by now and maybe if she stared at the image long enough she'd figure it out, even in her current muddled state (which was helped along with the occasional tranquilizer that had to be administered whenever Apple's mind split into two completely separate personalities and started screaming at each other).

XXX

"It's been months Dexter. Many, many months."

The boy pouted into his soup. "Yeah, I know."

"Raven said that she wanted you to be happy when she let you go."

"Because I let her down when she needed me the most. And maybe I really am a bad person because a part of me still resents her for not saying anything sooner." The boy grimaced. "And don't you go and try to make it sound less terrible than it was because the facts still remains; she was in pain, and I... I don't even know what I was doing. I thought that everything was fine. But it wasn't, I should have been paying more attention but… man I can't even remember where my head was at back then, I was just so stoked that she agreed to be my girlfriend you know?"

Dexter looks down guiltily at the checkered tablecloth. "Sorry, I know that this isn't exactly an appropriate topic for a date. I just… it's just that every now and then I still get hung up over it. When it all went down it happened so fast that I… she just cut everything off so quickly that I still… can't wrap my head around it."

Cupid sighs straightening her posture, it's not at all the date that she's been dreaming about ever since she first met the boy but at least he's actually saying something about it, which was a lot healthier than what he was doing before, bottling it all up and holding it in before it got to be too much and he had to go off and sulk.

He had done that a lot the first three months after Raven had left, one of the many, many, many reasons why Cupid kept her secret crush on the boy a secret until a while after they had all come back from summer vacation and Dexter had appeared at the very least to have gotten over Raven (though it was still a long while after that before the boy felt ready to try dating again).

So why the boy was relapsing now all these months later was extremely significant. Something was up.

Cupid hesitated. "Was there something that happened recently that dredged up the past for you?" She asked cautiously, her training kicking in and bracing herself for dealing with yet another delicate situation to circumnavigate. Raven's sudden departure and disappearance added onto the rather turbulent shift in pretty much the entirety of how the school was run and how people as a whole viewed fairytale stories these days had hit the boy pretty hard. Slipped hints here and there told Cupid that the boy had been self-analyzing over what his motivations for staying a Royal were (even though by default he appeared to be destined to Rebel despite whether he really wanted to or not just by being himself on a good day- he was neither storybook Charming nor princely- and pretty much everyone was confused as to why he called himself a Royal while he was dating Raven… after all Raven was no princess nor did she want to be in a fairytale, plus she had little patience for anybody but Apple messing with her life and since Dexter by Royal definition appeared to want to get into a fairytale and marry a princess of some sort… yeah it didn't make sense) and why he had dated Raven in the first place even though he knew who she was and what she represented (whether that was the Evil Queen's daughter or her being the Rebel Queen was still yet to be determined).

Dexter's eyes unfocused, looking off to the side. "You know… I just-… er that is to say I've just had some… things stuck on repeat in my head from way back when recently, you know with the latest shocking speculation o-of that Crown Prince Hraban girl getting a-a… significant other and all." The boy cleared his throat awkwardly. "You know Raven tried to teach me a bit about her homeland's old language a-and stuff… I-… I don't know I've just had some words… on repeat… in my head."

 _"So the people in your home kingdom don't all know you by Raven Queen?"_

 _"Er, well yes and no actually you see many rural areas of my mother's home kingdom speak the old language not Ever After standard so I'm called something else… but the meaning of the words that they speak in my name mean the same things."_

 _"Really? What do they call you?"_

 _"Oh well… I'm not sure that I really matters since it's essentially the same thing, and every time I start speaking my native language I have to really work to get rid of the accent in my voice… besides that I've been told that some areas refer to me as my father's child instead of my mother's now that I've rebelled against destiny…"_

 _"You sound as though you're afraid to speak your own realm's language."_

 _"What? Nah, no way… ha, ha what gave you that-?"_

 _"Raven."_

 _"It's just not deemed appropriate here alright? Every time I do speak it on accident or have an accent in my voice people… assume that I'm about to curse them or something."_

 _"Well you don't have to worry with me! I already know that you're a super nice person and I'll bet that your native language is just as pretty as you… are- er sorry that sounded kinda cheesy."_

 _"Un doch war es endearingly charmant (And yet it was endearingly charming.) Alright, they call me Hraban, Hraban Konigin, or Hraban Konig if they are referring me as my father's daughter."_

Her native accent had sounded rather pretty coming from her softly speaking lips, Dexter reflected.

Cupid blinked in confusion before her eyes narrowed knowingly. "Well considering all the time that has passed between nearly a year ago and now it wouldn't be all that unusual for Raven to have found somebody else… just like you have found somebody else…"

Dexter's eyes widened, he was caught out. "Um… that's not what I've been thinking about?"

"Of course it hasn't." Cupid sighed, put out. "What were those words you've had going through your brain?"

 _Hraban Konigin-Konig… Raven Queen-King._

"Oh I can't quite recall them completely, though… and I say this as a former friend of hers not her ex-boyfriend, it would have been nice if Raven had spoken her native language more often, I-I've always liked the sound of other languages... from both an aesthetic and an academic prospective you know." Dexter assured with as much sincerity he could muster.

Cupid immediately perked up. "Would you like to hear some Greek?"

Dexter covered her hands in his own. "I'd love to." He said honestly, and found that he meant it.

Dexter would keep Raven's secret (though it wasn't that big of a secret, or a secret at all depending on how he looked at it), that was no question, Raven deserved her privacy and well-earned new life more than anyone else he knew.

Even though he'd most likely never see her ever again, and both she and he were moving on past the point to where they could find each other again and talk out their issues and be friends (at best) or something more (extremely unlikely even in his own head) again, but he still respected her greatly and as a fellow child of the ruling class, he admired her current works in her early career and hoped that she'd continue being such a good monarch for the rest of her time on the throne.

Maybe he can hope to be allies with her one day, that was a rather nice thought.

XXX

The Mad Hatter was always nice to her whenever he visited, she never knew why he was so nice to her, didn't make an ounce of sense and normally she and Wonderland logic were on good ground where the making of sense lay.

She had not meant after all for what happened to his wife to ever transpire at all, and although recent evidence strongly pointed out that the Evil Queen was not at all at fault for whatever happened to her… that… it still did not excuse Snow White's actions and whatever Snowball had done to the Mad Hatter's wife, to the rest of that research team, in the Evil Queen's name.

Why was he being so nice to her?

However, she had pointedly decided not to ask him, she certainly was tempted beyond measure though, but at the end of the day it was… nice having at least someone who would look her directly in the eye with no suspicions or tints of fear, behind his warm mad grin was a stare as calm and as impassive as the Evil Queen had witnessed in the giant eyes of really ancient Jabberwocky.

And she needed him, because without him she'd have to travel away in order to figure out what Snowy's full plan had been, and in order not to stress out her family right now she absolutely _needed_ to appear to be perfectly locked up! Everything so far, the witch knew instinctively, was just the tip of a very elaborate, long-term plan, Snowball never did anything in halves or merely for sort-term gratification, she planned and she schemed and up until now she had been clever enough to outsmart not only her former lover but also the whole fairytale realm as well.

No more. The witch had resolved. It wasn't about them nor was it about protecting Raven and her former husband, that much was clear by the way that little Appleseed was clinging onto her, of all the people in the entire country, and the information that Wonderland kept leaking out into the world every few weeks.

The Evil Queen may have resolved herself to staying as far away from Snow White and, as Apple kept reminding her, her plan to get the Evil Queen to… react in a scary evil way in order to get things back to where Snowball wanted them, but that did not mean that the witch was just going to sit idle while her family did all the fighting!

Today the Mad Hatter looked a little shaken under his usual cheerful demeanor. "You are a very clever bee dark queenie. A test to see that a curse was only looking like a curse and how very docile and harmless it is to touch even when it looks so fierce and angry. Are you certain that you hold no Wonderland blood? Such a cunningly confusing tactic this is indeed! Under different timelines you could have been a great and sly ally!"

The witch bit her lip, usually she'd snap that she could have become queen to everything but knowledge of Snowy's manipulation sucked the fun right out of that and left a horrible taste behind. "Maybe I would have… and maybe I'd have poisoned old Snowball with red lipstick and hid her in a tree before I left her to find myself a decent happily ever after, I could spend days going over all the things that I could have done but… that'd be too silly… for someone like me to be doing."

"We'll help you learn how to be silly." The Mad Hatter assured. "The Queen wants you back and top and circled away in a place where everything and everyone will make more sense to you… with the provision that you don't try to take over of course."

Or it'll be off with my head no doubt, the witch mused, however the thought of disappointing Raven by doing such a thing was a far better deterrent. "You people… were nearly the only ones who understood and accepted me as I was, you know… I didn't choose Wonderland at random when I… I just wanted to become so powerful that _she_ wouldn't be able to harm my family or to just… push me aside as though I… meant nothing." Being honest was more difficult than first assumptions but she was willing to give being honest a shot as long as it would benefit Raven… and now Apple too, maybe she could learn to trust this Wonderlandian at least just enough to ask him about what she might do with Appleseed's shattered state of mind.

"I was always tipped suspiciously that they never let me see her body." The man confessed carefully. "Never spoke a letter about what exactly happened to her either, acted as though a Wonderlandian never heard of body mapping and fleshy mechanisms."

"My goal was to keep my subjects alive in order to serve me." The witch nearly hissed, her tone very severe, nearly emotional. "It would have been foolish to try otherwise and utter suicide to attempt to cast a curse spell caustic enough to kill on contact, if I was the sort to be stupid enough to try that I'd have ended up melting my own skin off just attempting to summon the damn thing! I refuse to let the blame for whatever _she_ did to your wife fall upon my family and I refuse to let this mystery be played into the hands of… _her_."

The Mad Hatter considered her for a moment. "You sound certain that it was queenie who did this."

"I can't think of anybody else who'd be so interested in making me out to be eviler than I… er, like I said; it's stupid, stupid, stupid to just up and kill off your potential future subjects… or people to gape at you for such an elaborate plan in tricking that they publically swear that you are the evilest thing to ever exist." The woman nodded to herself. "But if someone else is indeed involved then it'd be news to me, very surprising news indeed."

"Hmmm." The Hatter considered pausing to think.

"She'll be coming for me as soon as she realizes that I'm not breaking out… that little Apple isn't going to be breaking me out… I-I…" The witch falters her voice cracking uncharacteristically, but oh how can she possibly care about that when there are things far more terrifying to be concerned about?

The witch takes a brave breath. "I don't want her anywhere near me… not alone at the very least, not where she can-… I don't want to have to deal with her any longer! Gods! Even locked up and thrown away she seems to just… haunt my very existence! Even in the subtlest of ways I cannot escape her!"

"Locking you up in the place where you two first met and being the ruler of the same realm where your daughter used to go to school does weigh down the mind like cement shoes." The Hatter murmured thoughtfully to the rafters. "Of course that would be the point to all of it wouldn't it? To make you suffer to never forget her… or to move on." The man gave her a pointed look. "You were her most prized possession once to our understanding, and… well you know better than anyone how she tends to get with people taking away her playthings."

Here was where the evil Queen was supposed to come out, draw up to her full fury and declare that she was no one's plaything, maybe even be inspired to come up with a suitable plan for vengeance that would benefit both herself and her family.

But the fact still remained that the witch _did know_ how Snow White got when people tried to borrow her special red lipstick or got just a little too likable with the other kids in school, she knew better than anybody else because she had been the one sent off like a loyal assassin in the night to take action against such transgressors against the heir to the ruling kingdom's crown.

 _That_ had all been against those who tried to take away things that were Snowy's.

"But the Evil Queen was considered both a possession and the person who tried to take what was Snow White's away right?" The witch blinked back tears, cradling her head in her hands, thinking, _thinking_ , **_thinking_** so much that it hurt. "I-I oh! All this metaphorical madness does not make sense! I'm not a possession; I'm a living being! A Queen of a kingdom of my very own at that! You don't just possess the lives other kings and queens! You may rule over people sure but- but… I'm in a mirror in an attic… in… in a place that she grew from… a child to a young adult in! I-… ooh! There is something off about that but what-?"

The Hatter nodded raising his hand up in a signal showing that he'd be happy to do the translating of the situation. "The metaphor that you are looking for perhaps might be a secret, a secret and a fond memory… and a punishment as well all wrapped up into one, wrapped up into the mirror and stored in the attic for safe keeping until later… perhaps until never, and telling everyone that there is a monster up here so that they'll never steal you away again."

"Later being when… I stop trying to get away?" The witch shivered in violated fear. "When she comes for me-… or if she needs me." It was a grim realization she had already had but it held more layers now for some reason. "I am more than… just a way for her to keep staying popular… she thinks that I am… hers."

"A toy instead of a tool might be what you are grasping at?" The Mad Hatter supplied delicately. "That perhaps this is more than just a clever ruse to stay in a power far above the rest of us?"

"But then what of Raven? What about… Apple? How do they fit into all of this if it's… personal and not… solely for the sake of power?" The witch demanded, her knees trembling to stay upright as all her instincts screamed for her to flee.

"It must all make sense in the madness of her mind." The man made a face. "Linear madness that is, not the proper kind of madness that you nor I share." He corrected himself.

"I never signed up to become a damsel!" The witch sobbed in sudden, freezing panic. Having gone to great lengths to study the nature of fairytales and their magical qualities as a whole in her bid to better fit into her role she at least understood the full implications of playing around with the way that things had, once upon a time, been working smoothly without being tampered with… and what it meant now that things had been tampered with.

After all stories and words did hold power, more often than not taking a life of their own, Raven may have been able to break free of the cycle thanks to her own force of will (the older witch hoped beyond hope for her only daughter's sake that this was the case at the very least) but for someone who was already a fairytale character? That fate was going to be both very different and very out of control.

"She's very nearly gone and turned the story in reverse!" The witch bursts out in horror, finally giving in to sink to the floor. "The story was supposed to be over when I poisoned her! The spell done and sealed up! How- how could she have been able to set things into motion once again?"

The man paused eyes widening. "You thinky dink that the story restarted itself?"

"All the basic characters seem to be- to have been there." The witch hugged herself. "Good King, Goo- well " _Good"_ Queen by _technicality_ at the very least, seven or so Wonderlandians who took Raven in, the whole Rebel thing – or so I've… overheard from mad mumblings, is acting more like a hunting beast helping Raven which can replace the Huntsman and his hunting mercies… plus one actual Huntsman in the Rebel ranks, of course, not-so-nice Snowy being all evil when she should have been happy with what she's got, Apple cast as… well the poisoned apple I supposed with how that horrible woman treats her own kid- But… it's all been flung out of control since Raven was able to become her own Prince Charming and break herself free to safety… but it- I might just be paranoid right? Right?"

The Hatter knelt down to the panicked woman's level. "Maybe you are, nothing wrong with that, paranoia keeps you alive, but even so… the story would be over wouldn't it? The princess turns into the prince and saves herself, happy ending, sparkles and rainbows forever after yes? The Grimm Brothers would have surely sensed something. that is their nature after all, the writers of the Book and laws, beings that sense and keep the stories."

The witch bit her lip before shaking her head. "Under normal circumstances this would be so but-… that was back when the story had been operating under the rules of _Raven_ being the fair princess in this tale… and if the original story with me cast as the bad guy and Snowy as the princess had, in fact, worked the first go around… if the prince had in actuality been her actual prince… then old Milton would not have been playing along with Snow White's schemes in the first place. A wild story whose characters have switched up their proper roles is a highly dangerous one, his only hope to keep the old traditions on a predictable track, with all the right people in the right places of power, would have been Raven becoming the next Evil Queen."

"But your story with queenie had been perfect I thought; storybook even sevens and all that." The Mad Hatter shook his head in bafflement. "How could the prince not be the prince if he was the one to wake her up?"

Intellectually the witch knew that she had no more cause to keep her and Snowballs secrets to herself, for one she owed her ex nothing and for the other Wonderland knew practically everything anyway so there was no point in hiding this little, shameful fact in the face of a very hypothetically real threat.

Even so the woman couldn't stop her face from flushing bright red or the hot tears falling from her traitorous eyes in mixed embarrassment and shame as she grumbled out what had happened shortly after Prince Charming had kissed an unresponsive Snow White for the third time in the privacy of the forest with no one but herself and the boy as witness.

"Oh dear." A surprised Mad Hatter blinked at the woman in the glass. "That complicates things surely."


	18. Chapter 18

Raven grinned broadly as her father ruffled her turquois blue hair and commended her on her increasing ability to hold off against him in a sparring setting with swords, before sending the girl off with her friend Maddie to get washed up before lunch.

"Your rose garden is as lovely as ever your highness, you honor us once again by inviting us over to view such splendor!" The Good King speaks to the figure standing behind him without taking his eyes away from his daughter until she is out of sight.

"You and your child have been working tirelessly, it is only reasonable for your allies to take you aside and allow you some time to relax every now and then." The Queen of Hearts states generously; the note of hesitation in her voice alerting the man towards an undercurrent of a possible ulterior motive.

"My wife believes that it is highly necessary for us to use our own initiative to deal with the information she gave to the Mad Hatter." The Good King muses, finally turning towards his host. "She would have never admitted to such a thing if she did not see any other alternative for her personal safety."

"And what are your feelings on this new information?" The queen asks pointedly.

"She's the one who chose me in the end. She chose me and Raven over _her_ and should our common enemy dare try to lay a finger of influence on my wife ever again I'll be more than happy to shove this fact into her face." The Good King informed with an odd harmless smile and a scalpel's edge in his voice, the kind of edge that cut so clean that one felt no pain but did suffer the wound.

"Our opponent only has one chance to bow out of all of this without crossing a very definitive line, if she does so then I'd prefer it if we kept what is perhaps my wife's last secret in the darkness, to only use it as a last resort measure should the enemy ever attempt to go near my wife ever again."

The Queen of Hearts considered this, mulling it over carefully.

"She is still clinging very stubbornly to her ill-gotten seat of power, an animal who is injured and cornered is one of the most dangerous creatures to face off against, are you certain that we'd be able to hold her down should she attempt to lash out?" The woman queried, Wonderland itself teaching harsh but necessary lessons on how the nature of people reacted under incredible stress, teaching politicians and monarchs to treat politics as a sort of dance in minor warfare. If you stayed clever and quick you survived.

"My friend I have been circling this woman for years, and ever since my daughter has Rebelled I have gone to great pains to analyze the beast beneath the charming smiles and fair act. I have learned that she is only smart in the ways of building herself up by tearing another down, using people's fear of an imaginary threat to make them perceive her as next to godly, and she is oh so very, very fond of big dramatic displays to dazzle the populace, if we keep an eye on her men and her financials we just might force her to dirty her own hands in the most spectacular of fashions." The Good King crossed his arms and nodded to himself.

"Or drive her over the edge and break her mind, she's taken to twitching rather a lot these days, and my spies say that at one point her jaw locked up due to her grinding her teeth so much." The Queen of Hearts mused wistfully. "However I am concerned about Headmaster Milton Grimm, if he were to aid her in any way things could get rather sticky."

The man chuckled, a warm sound in contrast to the topic. "I've already confronted Giles about the change in fairytale roles and while I did not tell him about my wife I did allude to Prince Charming's lack of credentials and current false role. He's looked into it, doing whatever the Grimm family does when it comes to these kind of things, and he's assured me that his brother feels very sorry for any inconveniences harbored on our part and that they are both firmly staying even more out of it than before!"

"Ah." The queen said mildly. "So the Headmaster will be on a shortened leash then will he?"

"He certainly had him by the ear when he returned my call." The Good King raised his brows at the memory of Giles giving a sinisterly bright smile while indeed holding his struggling older brother by the ear; it was very comical to say the least. "There is one concern that I still have over all of this though."

"Oh?" The queen raised a brow of her own.

"Young Miss Apple, the fate of her future is rather bleak at the moment isn't it?"

"I'd say so yes."

"Raven's not going to just stand by and let other people, people who would be strangers to Apple, handle the issue. As soon as Snow White falls Raven is going to want to help her former roommate, in whatever capacity she can muscle her way into." The Good King predicts knowingly.

The Queen of Hearts gives an odd look. "Raven may be kind and extremely tolerant, but Miss Apple did let her mother go free, and it's to my understanding that she had terrorized Little Raven to the point of illness. Why in the world would your daughter ever want to go near that ever again?"

"Because Raven inherited her mother's sense of loyalty, you see despite my daughter's rebellion a part of her still regards Apple as her princess, someone that she must protect and ensure that they get the best possible chance at a decent future as possible. She's been around Apple long enough to understand that most of the hurtful things that girl has done to her is just a mix of brainwashing that there is only one way to live life and blind fear of a terrible fate, all instilled by Snow White. Raven once told me that whenever Apple used to go into rants about destiny and how Raven was supposed to be acting it was as Apple wasn't the one talking, it was as if someone else had possessed her and was parroting prewritten words over and over again through Apple's voice, Raven told me that she knows from being her roommate that Miss Apple's IQ is extremely high for a girl their age and that the girl very well be an established child genius by now if it weren't for her duties to being a helpless maiden. Raven believes that if Apple were to stand out of her mother's shadow and not lean so heavily on Raven to make everything all better then it would be no issue to find herself a happy, rewarding future."

"But Bunny informs us that with Snow White's rule over her being slowly choked out and with no Raven for her to lean upon to carry her the girl has not done well to figure out that her legs are there for her to stand upon on her own. That she is practically a puppet with her strings cut and a feral little furry thing that sometimes literally bites the hands of those who attempt to help her… That and apparently the child's mind without the mother's orders to keep her appearing like a sane person has… well left her quite mad, and not in a good way…" The queen trails off speculatively.

The Good King sighed but nodded. "And while your daughter's future court has done what they can to dissuade her from having anything to do with Miss Apple… I fear that there is too much love in her heart and too much loyalty in her bones to stay away forever. Raven still blames herself sometimes for not being strong enough to handle it all for Miss Apple's sake, and since Raven is not there to be a convenient bad guy my daughter worries after Miss Apple's wellbeing."

The woman eyed him. "You think she suspects her former charge's current frame of mind?"

The man snorts. "More than suspects, she did live with the girl for a long while after all. She knows, at the moment she is fighting off her desire to try to make it all better with the knowledge that her constant presence the last time around didn't seem to do either of them any favors, however I do know my daughter, and this hesitation won't last after the enemy has been vanquished."

The Queen of Hearts nodded in understanding. "I will inform my daughter and advise her to keep an eye on such a development. She'll know best how to proceed with this. Your daughter would make a valuable contribution to her court and to this generation's story of Wonderland after all. Young Raven would make a very good stand in for a King of Hearts as well as an adopted Wonderlandian."

"I'd appreciate it." The Good King sighed in relief. "There is no way that my daughter would allow me to discuss that bit with her, it's utterly mortifying talking to one's father about these sorts of things. She'd just up and run off in mortification!"

"Well of course! Since when have teenagers ever been willing to discuss their personal lives with their parents? Never, that's when, it's all a part of growing up and giving us grey hairs." The Queen of Hearts nodded her head sagely.

XXX

"No." The witch sighed, sounding more tired and worn than scornful and defiant.

"No?" The Headmaster demanded in outrage. "Do you have any idea just what-"

"Brother… be nice…" Giles warned sternly.

"I can't tell you, I don't trust you." The witch continued listlessly, her voice cracking with exhaustion on the topic at hand. She didn't bother trying to force herself to look at their faces like she normally had to do when she talked to people, there was no point here, not when she had been beaten out in the evil department and had no need to keep up the farce that she was completely normal in the mental department. "If Raphael didn't tell you then I won't either. And don't you dare go to Snowball about this; she doesn't know and I hardly think that she'd go easy on a couple of old men or spare you from her manipulations… she certainly won't spare me, her husband… nor her daughter more likely than not. She's not nice, never has been, the fact that you two were so blind to that- so blind to a whole lot of things that went on under your noses to be embarrassingly honest- then there is no way that you two can be trusted with such a dangerous secret! You've already put my family in danger by not warning me that her story went wrong and by not doing anything when she publically tried to ostracize and threaten my newborn daughter!"

She had wanted to sound furious and strong, wanted to save just one last shred of pride to these faces at least. They had personally pushed her to be nothing but the best, to be the most perfect villain and success case that they had ever taught, it would be right to do so, to be the embodiment of all the hours they had taken to turn a once bewildered witchling into the most powerful professional villainess in centuries.

But her voice didn't quite work right, the tones doing the opposite of what she wanted and instead of being furious or terrified… well a guilty looking Giles she could handle, marginally, but it was the Headmaster's open-mouthed shock and his strained demand to; "Cease the horrible excuse of acting at once!" that really made her flinch and take a few steps back.

Had he only ever seen her as nothing but a characterization ripped out of a page? A tool perhaps? He had always been loyal to Ever after's ruling crown she knew but… did he really not care what was happening to her? After all those hours spent personally teaching her and pushing her to excel in her classes only to… throw her away? No- not throw her away… maybe to lock her up and use her as an example of what future villains must try to achieve… without getting too big for their roles?

That's what it felt like certainly, it was utterly frustrating in a debilitating sort of way that she could not guess exactly why he was acting so… shocked to see her be… real.

"I am too tired for this." The witch decided backing away. She refused to cry in front of these two so she'd have to be quick. "The original story is over old man, and I refuse to be cast as the helpless damsel in this one. Just… stop trying to keep being my mentor, you already chose her side over mine and threw me away when my use was better served as being known as a… defect for the benefit of her power. I wasn't ever as evil as I- as you two wanted to be, the supposed "curses" I inflicted on everybody were nothing more than harmless illusions, I couldn't even bring myself to kill anybody- to kill you two especially when I had the chance a few months ago and-… maybe it's time I stopped trying to validate myself. I honestly don't care what you two will make of the defective former child you tried to help raise into a fictional character deciding to be real for once, but if it's all the same: go away and never go near me again."

And with that she ran off.

Highly anticlimactic and most likely neither understood the significance of her words or the situation and how she had always viewed her relationship to them as she saw it, at all.

But she had finally said her peace and she was not going to stick around to try to explain to them what she meant. Her family and Apple cared for her just the way she was minus the villain parts, that was a better tradeoff surely.

She knew what she said, what she meant, how her brain saw the world, _that's_ what mattered in the end.

XXX

"Raven has accepted the offer to become the King of Hearts for our story, hopefully we can complete the story before Snow White reacts in a spectacularly undignified fashion." Lizzie pursed her lips regally, eyeing Maddie and Raven playing a friendly game of croquet from over her phone. "By the way, don't mention the last bit to Raven, she's utterly fed up with hearing about Snow White."

"It won't be long now." Bunny mused. "When shall I go back home?"

"Much still has to be arranged. I'll give you a forty-eight hour warning before you must depart in order to tie up any loose ends when the time does come." Lizzie allowed generously.

"Thank you."

XXX

"Excellent work." The witch praised as she looked over Apple's grades. "You really pulled through for this quarter, I'm proud of you."

In response Apple hugged the taller woman's waist and half-hid her face into the witch's side.

Proud. This one was actually _proud_ of her; or at least she tended to say so quite often these days.

When was the last time that the other one told Apple that she was proud of her? It was rare Apple knew, Apple couldn't really remember when the last time had been… she had been very young, the girl knew that much.

"Briar and Ashlynn say that I should skip telling my mom about my grades… she… won't appreciate all the B's." Apple sighed, there had been an all-out argument between her and her friends about it in actuality. "They say that I'm not obligated anymore. I yelled at them a little over it, but to be honest I'm not too sure myself. Seems like a waste of a call seeing as how she is so busy lately and could probably do without this bit of news."

"A better question would be; do you want to speak with your mother right now? Seeing as how she's got overly high standards placed upon your shoulders at this highly inconvenient time. Do you want to face whatever judgement she'll lay on your head or would you rather send her a note that you were caught up studying past variations of the Snow White story through the generations and getting celebratory ice cream with friends?" The witch asked. "When I was in school I often employed roundabout methods to make everyone think that I was the best at grasping the concept of a villain… even when I was completely lost on that front. I'm sure that as long as you keep letting her know in an… indirect fashion that you are working hard to keep your grades as high as you can manage and that you are still close friends with children of other powerful realms then maybe she won't demand for specifics?"

The witch shrugged, looking at Apple's new hairband (thoughtfully enchanted by said witch to turn Apple invisible at will whenever the princess needed to be away from people in the middle of class) instead of her eyes, it was apparently part of the witch's mental condition that eye contact was difficult to achieve. "Of course I'm not an expert and I'm biased so you do what you think is best for you and I'll support you in the fallout, how's that?"

Apple nodded, clutching onto the fabric of the woman's skirt and cloak while the witch went back to adding ingredients into the small cauldron that Raven had left behind.

Not for the first time Apple wondered what it would have been like if… if maybe her mom and Raven's mom had a chance to… get married and be together. Would things be better off if it had happened that way? Of course Apple could never bring herself to contemplate actual specifics on how _that_ could _possibly_ work, between the factors of the Good King, her own father, and Raven's romantic feelings towards Apple and Apple's uncertain feelings towards Raven complicating things to the extreme.

But would it have worked? With Snow White ruling both kingdoms absolutely, and the Evil Queen keeping order of the palace and other kingdom duties while raising their children, it would have been quite the fearsome combination of married rulers and royal family for certain… but would it have been a happy one?

Apple sort of got the impression that both sides would have to address a few major issues but… they'd work to make it work, and _Apple_ would probably have been the most feared in school, and Raven the most loved, and maybe the both of them would have been admired by all.

Can you show me whatcha makin'?" Apple asked quietly, deciding that her birth mother could survive better with just a note passed down from Giles while she spent the rest of the day learning about magic from her unofficial foster mother and grabbing a late dessert with her friends.

XXX

"I am happy for you." Raven smiles out into the warm starry night of the palace garden.

"Sweetie-" Margarete sighed regretfully.

"No I really do mean it." Raven hastily assured, clutching the other girl closer, the two of them were curled up in a daybed, solemnly watching the fireflies. "This is something that you love, it's your passion! Being granted the opportunity to go to this country of Fanghai and study at their most prestigious graduate program at a university famed for their study of all different species of dragons and ecosystem conservation can be nothing but the highest of honors. Really, truly, you must believe me that I am in fact quite proud of you and I am telling the truth when I say that I am happy that you've been given this opportunity."

"But it will take me away from you, away from… us." Margarete argued back weakly. "How can you be so… so understanding? We both know how well long-distance relationships turn out with so much political edge at stake on your end and my need for privacy on mine…"

"How could I possibly not let you go?" Raven sighs. "What would I do? Demand your love and free time only to me? Have you guarded and branded as mine? Lock you up here to be nothing more than a pretty wife? We both know that I'd be far too horrified at myself to even consider such a thing, I can't just leave to follow you either, and you would punch the night-lights out of anybody who dared try to cage you up. I am terribly sad that this has to end… but at the very least I can comfort myself that I had the chance to get to know you. I-… you are the best thing that has happened to me you know that? You've given me back something that I never thought that I'd be worthy of having, you've given me the chance to find love again and to enter a relationship that-… gosh I don't even know how to begin to explain it. I never knew that a relationship like this was possible for someone like me."

"Hey, you've been good for me too ya know." Margarete smiled sadly. "Don't sell yourself short, you deserve to have the right to choose someone that'll make you happy and someone who'll treat you right! If…" The blonde witch hesitated. "…If we never find ourselves romantically interested in one another in the future I'd… I'd still like to be your friend and ally. And I'll grow to be fine with it if you choose somebody else while I'm away… so don't wait up for me, just live your life as a happy, free witch. You deserve that much at least! And don't let anybody tell you otherwise because if I even get a whiff that somebody is making you doubt your rights to have that much I'm coming back to kick their butt!"

"How I was fortunate enough to have met you I'll never know." Raven's breath caught at the sheer fierce honesty of the other's words, a chord striking somewhere inside of the Crown Prince that reverberated with the realization that the other was correct: she was free now, free to choose to be happy. She felt giddy with relief, as if she were inside that carriage all over again, running away from Ever After, never to return if she could help it. "But for you to want to be my ally and friend even after we are to part as well? I-… oh dear me, I don't even have the words I-… just, thank you!"

"Of course I'll be your friend." Margarete chuckled wetly, gingerly brushing away the tears that had sprung from Raven's eyes. "Always will be a friend to you personally as a person and an ally to my nation's Crown Prince, the same prince who is working so hard to improve life for creature, citizen, and nature alike."

"I'll endeavor to continue being someone who is worthy of your kind devotion." Raven sniffled hugging the other close.

XXX

Apple is a lot braver in pondering upon her own personal feelings towards Raven as of late. There isn't much choice in the matter since Apple has been so stuck on the young witch for so long that the mere thought of Apple not thinking about Raven at least once per day seems downright laughable (in a really not at all funny sort of way).

She argues with herself whenever she reaches a point that is still far too sore or to hidden with herself, it tears her apart between wanting to address the issue head on and burying it all up under denial and emotions that are easier to deal with, she's ended up frightening quite a lot of people (Hunter especially, and recently, Apple suspected, the Headmaster as well) and causing others deep concern (Giles, her friends, the social worker and the psychiatrist especially if the occasional tranquilizer was anything to go by) when she gets to the point to where she's mumbling furiously at herself. It's hardly all that fun for her either since most of the time when she gets to that point it feels like there are two completely independent versions of herself inside her own head and- well she makes herself dizzy whenever she tried to look too closely at the sensation of two, almost separate entities, yelling at each other inside their headspace.

Raven's mom doesn't mind it as much oddly enough, for someone who has trouble grasping inter-social situations and metaphors the woman is oddly perceptive, however unintentionally, on somehow saying just the right thing to get Apple to pull herself back together and think with one mind again.

Perhaps it was how the woman just cut the crap and spoke the truth as she saw it so bluntly, everybody else tried to spare her feelings and tiptoe around big issues with her, while Raven's mother was both incapable of doing so very well, and didn't see the need to do so most of the time.

It was slow going, admitting a lot of things to herself, about herself, about the world around herself and how it wasn't revolving around her even though her little world had crumbled down. Life moved onward and she went along with it, dragging the shattered pieces of herself along as she slowly developed a sense of a new normal, a new routine that was only helped by the balm of her friends still supporting her, most of the more vicious characters in school staying out of the way of the "crazy kid" (Duchess once tried to approach Apple during one of the blonde's more worse fits, all harsh teasing or cruel remarks quickly dying on the dancer's tongue as she listened in increasing wide-eyed horror to the girl talk to herself. Duchess had as of yet approached Apple ever since that day, for anything, not even to ask Apple for a spare pencil or to walk too close to the blonde, often opting to circumnavigate entire hallways if it looked as though it was going to be one of Apple's "bad days"), and Raven's mother just simply being there, whether it be something as simple as helping Apple with her coursework, or teaching Apple magic, or even quietly letting Apple cling to her to quell bouts of unseeing terror.

Bunny didn't seem all that affected by Apple's oddness, she was from Wonderland and Apple was hardly the strangest case of madness the rabbit-girl had seen (the same went with Apple's assigned councilor but Apple didn't have the same history with them, and Bunny knew where Raven was and spoke to her often so… not the same), though Apple was still arguably the enemy so she wasn't going to receive too much sympathy from the Wonderlandian simply on principle, or at least until she could be proven to be trustworthy enough for more Wonderlandian help.

Even if Raven's mother hadn't admitted it Apple knew that they were keeping Raven in the dark about Apple's descent into madness, Raven would have done more to help Apple in whatever strained way she could if she had known how far Apple's had sunk. When Apple finally got back around to rereading Raven's past letters with Raven's mom, the woman helping to explain why what Raven had sent to her had been significant (and kicking herself thoroughly for not seeing the help that Raven was trying to give her right off the bat because it had been so _obvious_ once she got over herself enough), Apple knew without a doubt that Raven cared enough about her that if Apple managed to get bad enough then Raven would find out (the young witch's mother, after much deliberation, promised it would happen if it ever got really bad) and come for Apple herself to see if she could perhaps do something to help the blonde.

Loyalty and Love. It was something that Raven had in abundance when it came to Apple, in fact it took extraordinary circumstances to convince Raven to be dragged away from her duty to make sure that Apple had a safe, happy ending.

Apple hadn't realized this back when things had been all about Rebellions versus tradition, back then as far as she could tell Raven had seemed… so childish in her ideals to have a happy ending for herself, acting as though she hadn't had an obligation to Apple and Apple's own wants-… well the things that Snow White _told_ Apple what Apple was _supposed to want_. Apple had been so sure that Raven was just going to cruelly abandon her and was so blinded by Raven not acting at all like how Apple had envisioned an Evil Queen was supposed to act that she had been blind to everything else that was really going on… until it was too late.

Raven had stayed Apple's roommate, had stayed in school, hex, she had tried to stay Apple's friend throughout everything, had taken steps to ensure that Apple was impacted as minimally as possible, that she really would get a satisfying life after school was over. In hindsight it wasn't as though Apple was ever going to be sent out to the cold wilderness, she was a princess for ancestor's sake! If Raven had stayed the worst thing that probably would have happened to Apple was that she'd either get a different villain to play the role of the Evil Queen or she'd… just become queen without having to go through the fairytale! She'd still get her kingdom, her throne, her riches…

When it was put into those kind of terms, Apple could kind of see why so many Rebels despised her so much…

But Apple had taken it too far hadn't she? Terrorized Raven to the point to where her mind and body were shutting down with illness and Raven could no longer shoulder the burden of real-world consequences from Apple any longer and Apple had only ended up orchestrating her own unhappy ending by trying to push Raven, perhaps her one real support under the weight of all of this, so hard until she gave in… and only ended up with the burden of everything sliding off of Raven's back and falling down on Apple.

It had never occurred to Apple that she'd benefit from the rebellion too.

But now it was much too late for a fairytale happy ending for Apple, and much, much too late for a non-fairytale happy ending either, at least not one where she'd ever be able to be the queen of Ever After. Her mother, for all of Snow White's usual brilliance in the philosophy of fairytale affairs, had left the state of regular kingdom business a complete mess!

Apple came to realize with a growing sense of betrayal that even if it had all gone to plan and Apple had gotten her story, she wouldn't be the true ruler of Ever After, it had taken several confessions from disgruntled advisors (trying to save their own skin) and some independent research but it soon became clear to Apple that the way that things had been set up was for her mother to stay the power behind the throne even after Apple had taken the throne as Snow White!

There was a set of official documents sitting in a drawer in the Headmaster's office, documents that the peasants of Apple's kingdom- no, the people of Ever After had demanded that she sign, for Apple to abdicate the throne and let the people dictate their own fates. A sentiment that had apparently been brewing for generations but only recently had been given a foothold to cling onto (for all its cleanliness and glitter some factions of Ever After's working class had grown very bitter with the giant class gape between the rich and common people, and many were pretty sore about being subtly bullied by an army of dwarf secret police).

There was no way that Apple could take the throne now, she'd be a worse hypocrite than her mother to deny the people their right to freedom from an outdated monarchy and such poisonous scandal.

And recently Apple wondered if she had it in herself to prove to the Wonderlandians that maybe Apple… was capable of being loyal and loving to Raven too. That maybe…

But that would require betraying Snow White.

Raven… or Snow White…

It was that daunting precipice of indecision that kept Apple up in the middle of the night more often than not. Which was she supposed to choose? Would she even be allowed to make a choice for herself in the end? And if she did make a choice would her conscience be able to bear the consequences of either decision?


	19. Chapter 19

They had decided to move up the date of honoring the Wonderland story ("honoring" instead of "reenacting" because somehow saying the latter- no matter how true it was- seemed to suck some of the magic and the "realness" from the whole affair), the Queen of Hearts having deemed Lizzie fit to rule and Raven was trained well enough to be a permanent part of Lizzie's court, as well as attending the witch's own duties in her own kingdom.

Originally Raven had been dead-set on not being a part of any shape or form of a fairytale story (at least not as long as she could run away fast enough and it being considered "bad form" to tie up and gag an unwilling villain and sort of prop them up in random places while the others in the story played on as if everything was normal- and wasn't that a mental image that still made Raven wake up in cold sweats and caused Kitty to cackle at the thought of Apple or the Headmaster muttering the parts that Raven was supposed to be saying as everything played on), and her friends and allies were fully supportive of such a stance, after all Raven and fairytales were at odds with each other on a good day so attempting to force the two to cooperate with one another was just… no.

But as time wore on and Snow White continued to go on and on about "saving Raven" and "bringing her back to Ever After to place her back on the right path in life" the young witch grew slightly more terrified each time. Sure Snow White was one big horrific hypocrite in heels but she was still an unchallenged (she made certain to remain so) queen to a fairly powerful realm and even though the woman was facing some serious repercussions for her past actions, she still held onto a lot of power and influence to make her dangerous to Raven's wellbeing.

There had been at least two attempts in the past year by Ever After's dwarf secret police to kidnap Raven and drag her back to Ever After, the first attempt was thwarted by an odd combination of Wonderlandian guards, the (irritated because they were woken up so early in the morning, like a whole two hours before they had to be up) palace staff, a verrry cranky Kitty (who had also been jarred awake), and the new magic/mad science security system.

It had happened so suddenly and so very… oddly that Raven and her father hadn't even been woken up by all the madness, the first that Raven had heard about what had happened she had blearily stumbled her way down to breakfast, only to find her very shocked father blinking muzzily out the top floor balcony at the sight of seven very indignant-looking dwarves, stripped down to their under drawers, and strapped down a hundred or so feet up on one of the old stone pillars that marked the edge of the royal family estate down the hill (as well as a remnant of where the ancient palace _used_ to stand before the old empire fell to the new one), gleeful Wonderlandian guard strutting around at the base of the structure and singing an old tribal victory song, for the whole of the capital city to see.

And then there was the sight of the triumphant staff tucking in a tired Kitty on one of the fainting couches, whistling merrily to themselves, while Sir Chase Redford dutifully filled bewildered father and daughter in on the events that had transpired a few hours previous, and ended just a half an hour ago. A lot had happened, Raven felt kind of sorry for the seven Ever After agents, Kitty, being part cat after all, did not believe in letting her prey (whether they be left for dead or alive) have merciful, swift defeats.

Raven and her father had known academically that Snow White would be getting increasingly desperate the closer Apple approached graduation, but their main concern had been the wellbeing of Raven's mother… neither of them had really considered that the woman would be crazy enough to try to kidnap Raven from her own kingdom.

It frightened them both deeply.

The good news was that both immigrants and native citizens felt united and rather patriotic for the next couple of weeks, and the second attempt to kidnap Raven had been even more unsuccessful than the first, the would-be kidnappers not even getting within ten miles to where Raven actually was (to put it simply; native rock trolls and hill-folk-witches are not easily fooled or intimidated by seven brightly colored little men wearing an enemy uniform), but the mere threat of the attempt was enough to shake Raven enough that she hunkered down in the library with Maddie and Alistair, dusting off old books on fairytale law to search for an answer to dissuade any future attempts on Raven and her family ( and not just for Raven's sake, the Ever After agents thus far had been relatively lucky themselves; after all being humiliated twice was a far cry from being killed).

They had found as one of their loophole options that once a roll had been played out it could not be gone back upon by taking up a different roll from a separate genera (aka, a Prince Charming, after saving a princess, could not turn Evil Queen and distress said princess), Maddie and Alistair being loyal Wonderlandians saw an opportunity, told Lizzie, Lizzie proposed an idea to Raven, and Raven being so distraught over reports of Snow White refusing to apologize and increasing anti-Ever After feelings all throughout Raven's realm that the witch did not waste very much time (save for a brief moment of silence for her fallen not-going-to-be-in-a-story convictions, and a token mumble of false hope that it would all go away soon enough) before agreeing to take up a role in the Wonderland story.

"Well I never thought that I'd ever have to get used to having black hair again." Raven hummed while an assistant helped her secure the heart-shaped gold and blood-ruby crown to her head, smaller and more masculine in design in comparison to Lizzie's but it suited it purpose and flattered the overall aesthetic of the simple-yet-rather-fancy outfit.

"It rather suits the color scheme I think." Lizzie observed, walking up to the witch and stilling Raven's hands, which were fussing with the opening of her blood red silk dress-shirt, as if searching for nonexistent buttons to fasten close and thus concealing her exposed collarbone and the top part of her chest. It still hid enough and it was tasteful but Raven was not used to showing so much skin in that area.

"Red, black, and gold, yep." Raven nodded minutely as the assistant silently secured a gold heart pendant on a black ribbon around her neck. "I like the gold embroidery on the seams of the pants, very appealing."

Lizzie smirked. "Nervous?"

"A little, yes." Raven admitted. "Mostly I'm just surprised that my dad and your mom had been planning a… I'm not even sure what to call it to be honest. Whatever this is for a backup plan."

"We're making your kingdom a sister country with this act." Lizzie informed patiently, amusement hiding in her calm tone. "It's of the same Wonderlandian relationship that my kingdom has with the White Queen's; separate governments, separate countries, but combined under the same monarchy houses, by making you a character in Wonderlandian traditions we are cementing you as one of ours and therefore part of our tribe, if anybody tries to go after your kingdom or yourself in the future we will by Wonderland family obligation, rip them apart."

Raven raises a brow. "And the fact that this will make Snow White have kittens when she hears about me tying myself to an entirely different role?"

"A perk of course. Along with incentive for your people to not worry so much about roping you back into the world of fairytales." Lizzie laughed. "Dear me do they absolutely love you, and in such a short amount of time! They've grown very protective of you, I think that more than a few of your people fear that we've gone and trapped you into marriage!"

"There are some people who'd feel as though me getting married would be cause for drunken celebration." Raven grumbled thinking back to several hours previous when she had still been at home getting ready to leave to Wonderland for a few days, the staff had been all smiles and cheerful chatter about topics on that tangent being betted, speculated upon, and joked about in the streets. Some worried that Raven was being bartered in exchange for her people's freedom, others kind of liked the idea of the royalty merging together (which very well may happen at some point or another in the future, if not by marriage then at the very least via shared custody of future heirs).

"Any excuse for a good party." Lizzie stepped back, hands on hips, and surveyed Raven before nodding her approval of the other's appearance. "Excellent, you cut the figure of a King of Hearts perfectly."

"Thank you." Raven humbly bowed her head soberly.

XXX

The first sign something was up was when Faybelle reported (with a definite pout even though the fairy swore that she wasn't going to miss her roommate _that_ much) that Bunny had packed up everything on her side of the room and had thoughtfully moved some of Faybelle's things into Bunny's now empty closet.

The second thing that tipped Apple off that this very well may involve her somehow was how Raven's mother had grown almost… nervous, spooked even. Clinging onto Apple and looking at Apple almost as if she was… worried, whether it was a worry for Apple or a worry about Apple and what Apple may do was still a mystery, regardless the witch increased her private lessons in teaching Apple how to use defensive magic, and seemed to make certain to tell Apple at least six times per day that Apple was perfect as she was and that the woman was proud of Apple for being Apple, and Apple **_shouldn't let anyone bully her into thinking otherwise_**! Like to an excessive degree.

So yeah, something was up.

So Apple, knowing that she'd have to work alone on this (for her other friends may or may not be in on this secret thing and would probably keep Apple out of it regardless of either) so before Bunny could finish saying her goodbyes to "stoic" (trying not to tear up) Faybelle and all her other friends at school (though not too many because it was three in the morning and the Headmaster and Giles apparently didn't know she was leaving) Apple nicked the girl's mirror-pad from her suitcase (Bunny still had her phone so the girl wouldn't be without _something_ to communicate with) and pocketed it just in case she might have to get a hold of Bunny and simultaneously chew her out for not warning Apple of something important while also begging for help (strange stuff happened around school often enough that Apple knew what to do by now).

By breakfast Wonderland closed off all access points that connected itself to Ever After and it's adjoining smaller kingdoms and by dinner the news that the story of Wonderland was being enacted with Raven herself playing the part of Lizzie's King of Hearts to further join the two realms together was the talk of the school.

Already uncertain about the mixed feelings between intense jealousy towards Lizzie (having Raven loyally at her side the _lucky, lucky little_ -), and vindictively, insanely proud of Raven for going out and not only making her own destiny and doing her part to make things better for her realm, but also taking measures to ensure that no one and nothing could, by "tradition", take it away through force (at least not without attempting to declare all-out war on Raven, and Ancestors only knew that the rest of the fairytale community actually liked the witch enough by now not to let either happen to the girl) Apple is dealt with one more shock for the day before dinner is over.

The announcement comes over a mass video-hext on everybody's phones, a quick one, obviously made in haste, saying that the queen in an act of good faith (orders the other side to come to Ever After or else) would like to congratulate the Wonderlandians and the new generation of characters personally at the school once Wonderland is opened up again, no personal warnings, no quiet letters to warn Apple of it beforehand, Apple doesn't even get a message herself in any form, but whether it is because Apple has a special phone that doesn't allow her mother to contact her anymore or if it's because of a whole other emergency reason or-… no. Wait. Best not to contemplate that now, because Snow White is making a surprise visit to the school come sunrise tomorrow, maybe even earlier.

And Apple knows her mother isn't going to come to school just to see Apple, or to simply wait until Wonderland's story was over, _this_ was going to be an attempted act of desperation, no more patiently attempting to wait for it all to blow over, Snow White couldn't afford that, not this slight directed at her carefully laid plans, because after this Raven really would be gone from their lives forever and with Raven the young witch's mother (Snow White's most prized trophy and reminder of the past, Apple theorized that perhaps, given the state of her mother's… lack of personal affection towards her father, then maybe Snow White treasured the hidden affair she had with her "enemy" too much to just let go completely) would soon disappear from under Snow White's thumb, and there was only one last trick up her mother's sleeve before everything would tumble away from the woman's grasp.

"She's going to try to make a deal with Raven's mom." Apple murmured to the stunned silence of her table, somehow being overheard despite the rising clatter of whispers and bewildered conversations all around the room. "She's going to try to scare people to the point to where it all goes back to normal, because as long as people are terrified of the idea of an Evil Queen they'll either forgive or forget anything Snow White did… and does. She'll scare the people into believing that Raven's family and the Wonderlandians are liars, and so evil that they all need to be locked up, or have their rights taken away and put under the strict supervision of Ever After, she'll also find a way to punish those who are looking to gain the role of Evil Queen away from the Queen line and… she'll drag Raven back, and she won't let Raven go until Raven poisons me… or maybe she'll never let Raven go. I don't know anymore…"

"Apple…" Briar starts but when Apple turns to her friend there must be something in her expression, because Briar goes from all soft looks and comforting tones to alarmed eyes and holding Faybelle's hand protectively.

"Maybe she won't let Raven go at all." Apple breathes out, stunned thickness in her voice. Puzzle pieces fitting together in her brain. "Maybe this… has never just been about being better than everybody else."

Apple closes her eyes and breathes deeply through the sting as old realizations suddenly _strike_ her, having a whole new dimension to them.

Because she suddenly realizes that everything she has been told to believe, everything that she has learned, and everything that a Snow White is cannonlogically supposed to embody has been exactly the wrong way to go about becoming _an actual ruler to an entire country_ filled with _real_ people living _real_ life _outside_ of fairytale glitter and magic.

Snow White is supposed to be fair and pure and physically beautiful, living out her harrowing fairytale, being saved by the prince, before getting married in order to produce more heirs and live a life of pampered privilege and luxury in the spotlight till her own daughter, younger, youthful, and the perfect ideal of a young, new Snow White, goes through the cycle all over again before the old Snow White grows too old to keep up her perfect physical appearance, before retiring in a life of luxury out of the spotlight and sometimes even being the unseen power behind the throne of the younger generation.

A younger generation who has been taught very little on how to actually run a kingdom properly and therefore will do whatever their mother, advisor, husband, or anybody else in the inner circle tells them to because this was supposed to be the happily ever after, after the story was done, nothing bad or sad or imperfect was supposed to touch them because that only happened to people in the real world and when you were a fairytale you were supposed to be… immortal in a way. Living on a cloud of thinking that they were perfect in every way and that everyone loved them without exception and that… that Snow White was better than everybody else, because of the happy ending, and therefore nobody should dare begrudge anything the most perfect being in creation ever wanted for herself… or was told by a more knowledgeable source that she wanted something for herself.

And what of everybody else? Well the other royalty with happy endings were to be befriended and kept in good standing- just as long as they understood that their stories were nowhere near as good as Snow White's.

Non-royalty with happy endings were to sometimes be kept in good standing as well, though pitied for their common blood, and to be treated like loyal subjects regardless of which kingdom that they actually hail from.

Royalty with bad endings were to always be pitied and treated as if terminally ill and/or mentally incapable, pitied but not dwelt upon.

Villains outside of the Evil Queen were to either be pitied for their bad endings or ignored in proper maiden fashion (via screaming and running away), dealings with them are to be brief and consisting of acting as perfect as possible so that it is established that Snow White is good and therefore better than them on principle.

Royalty without a fairytale were to be ignored or pitied.

Non-royalty with a bad ending were to be pitied but not lingered upon.

Common people without a fairytale and therefore without any status were to be pitied for being so… ill-bred, treated as though just the mere sight of a Snow White in a royal painting or photograph was the greatest gift that could be given, always treated as though the common folk were without the proper mental capabilities to properly care for themselves, that they would all worship a perfect Snow White, blindly following her every command and those who didn't were evil at heart… etc. Etc… and so on and so forth.

But the Evil Queen… the Evil Queen was special. Because the Evil Queen was both a villain and foreign royalty whose family line was born to serve Snow White specifically, being the noble sacrifice who would commit a horrible deed just so that Snow White could be saved and made Queen of her own realm.

It was the Evil Queen's job to be horrible to Snow White, to teach Snow White the truths about reality and the fact that a fairytale doesn't automatically protect Snow White from the real world, that not everybody is going to love you, or take your word as gospel, that there are other kingdoms out there with monarchs just as powerful and just as unlikely to worship Snow White as perfect, that in the face of something scary a Snow White must stand on her own and be a good defender of her people and work to make the lives of her people better because in the end a queen is only as perfect as her understanding that _she is there to serve her people_ and their needs and dreams _to the best of her abilities_. That absolute power comes with absolute corruption and in order to remain perfect a Snow White needs to recognize that through vanity and inherent assumed superiority they are fallible, imperfect and useless.

A few Snow Whites of the past must have appreciated this, helping them to more accurately prepare for a rule that would be fraught with more headaches than what was advertised.

But oh how many of Apple's ancestors must have loathed it. Just as Apple loathed it, refusing to acknowledge it entirely even when Raven went as far as to draw up diagrams, speak from the Rebel's perspective, and send her letter after letter detailing clever, clever things that rulers did in the past that got them through difficult times or through controversial changes. Even turning her back on the story Raven still did her job, tried to teach Apple how to be a good ruler because that was even more important than being a perfect representation of a Snow White.

And how Apple's mother must have hated such a notion, a villain teaching a Snow White how to act like a better ruler? It would have been laughable to her, and with the villain she had been given; a witch with a mental disability who was having trouble keeping the plot on what she was supposed to do as a villain let alone as an instructor… really knowing how Apple's mother worked the older woman most likely sneered at the traditional concept that was ill fitted towards her own goals and decided to change things to work to her own personal desires and interpretations.

And maybe in some twisted way her mother really did fall in love with her designated villain, after all if the Evil Queen had just been a means to an end then she'd have let the witch walk away without even a blink.

But she hadn't let the witch walk away, she had lunged after her and dragged her back under her thumb kicking and screaming.

And Apple had been the tool to keep everything just the way Snow White wanted it all to stay, after all if Apple managed to get Raven under her control and either drove the other girl to do something that would force her to be locked up or to break Raven down until she had no choice but to seek refuge in Apple's tender care then that was all the better wasn't it? Can't keep the mother under control unless her child was thoroughly under control.

All this time it was; Snow White wants this, Snow White demands that, and do as Snow White says.

And just how many people had to suffer because of it?

But… if that was the case, if it was more about controlling her former lover and this grand scheme to seem better and gain more power over the other stories was a secondary thing… a perk, then that was-… well that wasn't very clever at all was it? Effective to be certain but… not smart or cunning, not like a queen would have to be to make this all work out in the long run, no. A queen needed to see the bigger picture at all times, and Apple knew for a fact that there was nobody, not one soul inside her mother's inner circle smart enough or brave enough to dare tell her mother what to do!

But if her mother wasn't clever enough to think past her personal wants and small world view to the big picture then how was the kingdom being run? It was facing some social grumblings and underlying revolutions sure, but Ever After was a wealthy first-class realm with a healthy economy and a top notch school system for all social classes, how was the kingdom, even in these times of upheaval, doing so well if the ruler of said kingdom wasn't doing their job properly and seeing the big picture?

Come to think of it; was Snow White actually running the realm? Her mother spent a lot of time and energy with the royal doctors, to keep her appearing to look young and youthful as she continued to age, lots of research and personal time was put into Apple's personal popularity and grades and constantly compared to the other kids at school to ensure that Apple stayed above board and as perfect as possible for when she took the throne after graduation, public appearances, parties, and the occasional hosting of an important visit from a foreign monarch (Snow White never, to Apple's knowledge, left Ever After herself) and… well all of that would take up lots of time wouldn't it? Surely there would barely be enough hours in the day after all of that to also do the important things that needed to be done to actually _run a kingdom_.

There had been paperwork, lots of it, Snow White showed Apple soon after the girl had mastered basic mathematics how to sign her name and keep track of things and numbers in meticulous order… but all of that had been for the Botox treatments, the guest lists, planning out Apple's rate of success for the next term at school, who was who in the fairytale world, what were their stories, what role was more important than the others… the Evil Queen this, when I was in school the Evil Queen and I fought about these, and a truly perfect Evil Queen is supposed to be that…

But none of it was actual kingdom business! At least not in the same way that they touched upon it in classes (though acting maidenly was far more important, and Apple was more interested in taking advanced potions classes and mathematics rather than question why her fellow monarchs had different types of in-kingdom tutoring from their homelands, and how to best run their own kingdoms, than what she was being taught) but it wasn't the kind of ruling that Apple had begrudgingly observed that Hraban girl do in Raven's realm (it was pretty difficult to justify six-hour expensive parties and Botox injections with playing kick-the-can with children in the yard of a newly opened rural schoolhouse, and getting all muddy right next to a bunch of farmers planting the next crops of root vegetables, and other edible plants, and being seen taking exhaustive, lengthy notes in lecture halls and emporiums on the latest invention ideas, doing research to see which ones hold the most water to see in it could be developed for future realm progress…).

So… what happens when a Snow White isn't really all that clever enough to actually run a country properly? What if there comes to be a Snow White that is… only really, really good at acting like they know what they're doing, has little interest in the kingdom outside of living out the happily ever after?

Well obviously the kingdom runs itself and only lets the monarchs think that they were in charge. That would be the smartest way to go about it. Use the queen's popularity to their own advantage, and just keep going along and being careful not to rock the boat enough that the queen would take too much notice of the commoners.

Because the people of Ever After lived life in the real world, and a Snow White could not live in the real world, not and still have a happy ending; the two realities did not mix.

So perhaps it was just about keeping a former lover close and never growing out of the need to be the most popular person in the room.

Somehow that seemed even more dangerous than the notion of Snow White simply being smarter than everybody else.

And what about Raven? What would become of her if Snow White were to-?

"Apple? You've got your plotting face on, you know, the one that only shows up when things are about to get really bad and you are planning on jumping right into the middle of it. What are you going to do?" Ashlynn asked, suspicion and concern coloring her voice and expression.

Yes what was Apple going to do?

Snow White or Raven?

Raven or Snow White?

Family duty and the woman who birthed her, trained her, and who she was supposed to become… or true all-encompassing friendship, relenting loyalty, and the girl who once loved Apple so much that-

 _Raven staying by Apple's side even though the smart thing would have been to leave school and return back to her kingdom and people._

The girl who loved Apple so much that-

 _Raven vowing to stay Apple's friend and as understanding as possible even though the chasm between their views of the world grew deeper and wider by the day._

Someone who loved Apple more than anything-

 _Raven protecting Apple from a harsh truth and reality that would have broken Apple if she had known that fairytales could not protect her from the real world, shouldering Apple's blame and Apple's needling need to control and shape Raven._

Raven who was nothing but loyal and Loved Apple with all of her heart-

 _Raven making Apple smile and laugh, giving Apple little gifts, being a sympathetic ear- or at least trying very hard to be- being Apple's friend, working with Apple to solve the next crisis or soothe the latest freak out, making Apple feel safe and warm and thinking, even for a few precious moments, that Apple was indeed perfect as she was, that she could grab onto happiness without it needing to be handed to her… and for an instant having Apple consider every now and then that maybe Apple can have a happy life without the story and maybe there really was a way for the both of them to be happy forever after together without having to sacrifice Apple's identity or Raven's freedom, or being friends…_

Raven who loved Apple…

 _Raven who fought through her own heartache at Apple's continuous cycle of anger, betrayal, life or death consequence, empty apologies, going back to pretending everything was fine and crippling fears of it all happening over and over again until Apple pushed too far to ever go back, just to protect Apple from herself and the inevitable consequences over Snow White's influence over every aspect of Apple's whole life-_

Raven who was always there for Apple… even when she should have ran away while she had the chance…

 _Raven who struggled to bear the weight of the world off of Apple's shoulders until her body and mind latterly gave out from the burden and she grew so ill from the stress and the extra duties she had to address to keep the Rebels at bay as well as trying- always trying but never seeming to get through to Apple about how things actually worked in the world after the story and the celebrations were over and the consequences of Apple trying to control the lives of others without hurting Apple in the process… that she just collapsed one day and had to be taken away…_

Her dear sweet Raven…

 _Raven who still tried to help Apple through her entire life being turned upside-down and dropped on its head, despite distance and being divided so much on their views of the world that Apple couldn't even begin to guess how to bridge the gap or how to search for Raven to be at her side again-_

Raven who loved her so unconditionally and faithfully it surpassed the glitter and the charm of simple words in a fairytale story and entered a level that actually shook Apple to the core every time she thought about it that her very bones sang…

 _Raven the girl that Apple loved so much it frightened her to even dare attempt to give the feeling a name until now-_

Raven loved Apple.

 _Apple_ loves Raven.

So simple and yet so very, very devastating.

Oh Apple never did have a choice in this did she? At least not a choice that she could wind up actually living with. Oh, oh dear, she was so far gone…

"Faybelle I need you to do me a favor." Apple breathed through the tense line in her jaw, staring hard at the table.

"…Depends on what it is… maybe…" Faybelle eyed the princess wearily, ears folded back, wings twitching at the sudden air of danger in the air.

"I need to protect Raven from my mother, if it looks like I'm going to chicken out I need you to slap me across the face!"

Hunter choked on his drink and began coughing violently.

Faybelle blinked. "Whu?"

"And if I end up siding with mom anyway you need to prick my finger and make me sleep for a hundred years because there is no way that I'll be able to live with myself if I end up hurting Raven as badly as I did in the past!" Apple explained in a rush standing up from her seat.

"Apple!" Briar cried out in shock.

"Who'll become Snow White if you give up on your kingdom without an heir?" Faybelle asked stupefied.

" _Faybelle Thorn_!" Briar scolded.

"What? What am I supposed to ask in the face of this insanity?" Faybelle held up her hands.

"Give the kingdom to Briar as a gift or something, girls like expensive things." Apple called over her shoulder as she sprinted away.

"I don't think she'd like that particular gift." Faybelle mused to the air.

"Your damn right I wouldn't! Princess Apple White! You get your butt back here right this second! Don't even think about trying to loose me by jumping out the window and into the forest- _damnit Apple_!"


	20. Chapter 20

The witch sat on Apple's bed, not looking forward to the havoc that Snowball was going to wreak on her heart and self-control in the morning (or earlier if the Hatter, the one they had sent to warn her, was to be believed), and also ruing the fact that she no longer had a name nor title to call her own now, having signed away her birth name and having the Evil Queen title ripped away by the very same former princess who had damned them both into a whole new fairytale without a guide or a clear ending. The title of Good Queen didn't fit, and there were no witches cast in the roll of being somewhere in the middle of good and bad anyway so… Trapped Enchanted Sorceress? No that didn't fit either…

And what was she to do now? If there was not a suitable title for her in this story then how was she supposed to even hope of surviving this new story? Honoring fairytales were all well and good when you knew that you would be allowed to live afterwards and continue on to produce an heir for the next generation of stories.

But wild tales, stories that were writing themselves were dangerous, if this was indeed the case with her- with _them both_ , and then there was a serious risk that this would end in tragedy, for both of them. The initial elements for a fairytale were there; the moral was a bit hazy and her own role elusive, but there was no denying that this was a story trying to tell itself. It always had been trying to tell itself ever since… she and Snowball were born probably, it certainly wasn't the _prince's_ kiss that awoke Snow White that was for _certain_.

But why had the story changed? Evolved? Maybe it had changed because it got fed up with being told with the whole "true love's kiss" thing and sought to seek revenge by having the poisoner and the hero be the same person?

Theories found in historical documents from both the Queen and White families stated that there may have not have been a kiss that woke the princess at all (Snow White threw a fit when the witch had parroted this theory to her back in school, saying that the witch should cease listening to everything her mother- the Evil Queen at the time- said and that had been that)! According to what is believed to be the original recipe for the poison used on the apple, there was no magic used in the potion, the dose was supposed to make the original princess fall into an induced coma. Whether the intent was to drag the girl back into the original Evil Queen's clutches, or to conveniently have everyone believing that the heir to the throne had died off while in reality the girl had been shipped off to some foreign land, as a sort of mail order bride, to any sultan that was willing to repay the Evil Queen with a favor… was still up for (very quiet) debate.

If it hadn't been for those bleeding dwarves covering everything in charcoal dust (an agent often used to absorb poisons from the body), the first attempts with the comb and the corset would have been successful and none of this bloody fairytale business would be haunting her today!

After all if the original Evil Queen had wanted the girl to simply perish, the girl _would have_ perished and that would be that.

But then again that was just a bunch of scholars talking, no way to know for certain now.

She… just didn't even know what the deal with anything was anymore.

Maybe… she should run. Lie through her teeth. Tell the Mad Hatter that she had managed to find her own way out of the mirror. Have him help her get to Wonderland, back to her family. For so long she had been holding onto her roll as Evil Queen, and her duty to prove that she and her family did not deserve to be brushed aside and forgotten in the tides of time, and a long line of the same fairytale character being worn in the bodies of so many nameless individuals…

What _was_ she without the Evil Queen? With her past certainty that she was doing right by her family crumbling into dust before her very eyes-

 _What_ was she now? The damsel in a story both familiar and twisted up into a stranger? No. She refused to be a hapless damsel in anything! Let alone against… _her_.

If she ran now, submitted herself into Wonderland's care would she be able to break free from the story? See her family again and be forever known in history as the mother of Raven King-Queen? The reason her daughter turned against destiny, and fought so hard to save both her mother and kingdom in return for them both attempting to save her back when she was a baby… _that_ actually didn't sound all that bad, at least she wouldn't be forgotten, and with Raven being the one to amend this entire train wreck with nothing but her apparent _sheer force of will_ , her mother might regain at least some respect that Snow White and everyone else had been so methodical in stripping away.

She could run. She could forsake the thrice-damned story and go back home! Go back to her family and people, and have a chance at her own happy ending with Raphael at her side and a daughter to be truly proud of, and- and-

The woman's head snapped up when Apple _leaped_ in through the window and flattened herself to the nearest wall.

"Lost her!" The princess panted in satisfaction.

"Apple dear what-? Where have you been and what have you been doing? You've got twigs and leaves in your hair!" The witch observed in mild alarm as she came up to the girl and began fussing over the child.

"Had to lose my friend's trail, they can't know about you being out. My mom is coming. She's not going to be nice at all. She's going to try to force you to use your magic and scare everybody. She's expecting you to get mad enough to either fight for her cause or to lose your cool and try to smite her. But if you don't use your magic like she expects she could hurt you. If you do she will make things worse for you and Raven!" The princess got out in a rush, eyes blown wide and wild. "This is scary and it's insane and I'm so terrified _butifIdon'tstopitwhowill?_ "

The witch cupped the girl's face. "Apple…" She said gently.

"Maybe I can talk some sense into her! She's a Snow White and my mom and she's not going to be happy, but she has to love me enough to see that by doing this she's going to end up tearing our family apart, and that I care too much about Raven to prevent her from being happy!" Apple tried to reason. "She should love you enough to see that all of this has hurt you. It's not going to be easy but if she just… stops then eventually we can all get passed this!"

"Apple." The witch sighed again, sad this time.

"Raven and I have faced stranger things than my mother, each other half the time, she's my mom! She- she's not supposed to be a monster, she can't, she's got a duty to adhere to! Duty and being Snow White is everything to her, I should know since she's spent my entire life training me, and coaching me on how to do it just right!" Apple argued, seeming to plead to the universe as a whole that her words were true. Continuing to babble on even as tears streamed down her unblemished face and her frame shook.

The witch was pretty certain that Apple wasn't believing her own words, and probably knew that the older woman knew Snowball well enough to know that there wasn't a sane rhyme or reason to the queen's madness. That in order for this all to end the witch was going to have to do some serious biting down onto her pride (and now she was suspecting some screams of pain too but she was really hoping that Apple was wrong about her mother trying to actually harm the witch… not that it would be much of an issue if the witch started running now, like _right now_ ) and just let Snowball get frustrated enough to incriminate herself ( _just keep silent most of the time and speak as minimally and as calmly as possible if she was confronted by the woman_ , the Hatter had advised, _that or swallow even more of her pride and hide, do not respond or step out of the mirror at her own risk,_ she was the "maiden" in this tale after all. Don't feed the troll and it will not grow out of control… which was unusually cruel to trolls but she had gotten the gist of what he meant… or well… she _thought_ so at least).

The witch gathered the distressed girl up into her arms as Apple began to sob, much like she had all those weeks prior when the girl, all feral and breaking up inside, had in a fit of madness and grief broken the woman out for a second time.

The witch held the child close, well perhaps the girl was not completely a "child" anymore, but with the way the girl had been raised the older female, even with her mental limitations _and_ criminal status, was far more suited to living life outside the sheltering walls of the school than the princess was.

It truly was sad, here was a smart mind and a perfectly bred natural affinity to making people feel as though they _should_ be obligated to take good care of Apple, and love her for being so disgustingly sweet, traits that would normally ensure that the girl would do well all by herself in life, and they had gone and declawed the dear little thing! Took away her ability to think for herself and had given her little to no skills or knowledge in how to run her own life, let alone actually run an entire kingdom! Training someone how to faint prettily in the face of potential danger and to allow herself to be poisoned by _literally anything_ , made her more of a liability and a target that would not last very long if someone actually decided to try to assassinate or take advantage of her.

But she was perfect in Snow White's eyes, the perfect little poisoned weapon to keep up her own popularity while also forever keeping Raven, and as an extension the older witch, tethered to Snow White until either the horrible creature or the older witch died.

And what would Snow White do to little defenseless Apple, if the queen's entire reason to train her own daughter to fantasize eagerly about being poisoned (even going as far as to name the girl _Apple_ , as if to advertise that it was supposed to be _that_ fruit, covered in poison, delivered by a _very specific_ evil witch for the girl to eat, and have the girl act like being poisoned, not being saved by the prince, was the most important part of the story) just up and disappeared…?

"She doesn't seem like the type to stop once her mind is made up, does she?" The woman realized with a sinking heart.

"Mom never gives up on _anything_." Apple hiccupped miserably.

 _Or lets them go_. The witch thought with a shudder.

The witch steeled herself, there was little choice now.

The best thing to do was to not be evil right? Do the opposite of what Snow White wants; let Wonderland catch her in the act of trying to break a criminal out, maybe even get an entire monologue out of it to share with all the realms…

She was the enticing lure to Snow White' destruction, and _certainly not_ the helpless maiden, not at all, not one bit.

Nope.

After all how many damsels went back to face their adversaries and not give an inch of fear or caring for the other's childish desires?

…Okay well… maybe a few went back to their stepmother's house, or talked to a big scary beast… but at least she wasn't wearing white or some obnoxious bright colors! And by the love of the Ancestors she was not going to faint, or plead for mercy, or cry _godsdamnit_!

XXX

Even though it was more part act, part Raven being Raven; the witch did make a rather ideal King of Hearts. She was indeed kind, fair, patient, polite, albeit a bit shy and quiet due to being out of her element, and she was, in all appearances, very doting to Lizzie, warm and fond to the Queen of Hearts even when she was in a beheading sort of mood.

One thing she was not was a coward though, which along with her distinct "foreign charm" was only to be expected of course, even as a character in a story Raven was still very much Raven through and through.

The witch really did put on quite the flawless performance despite her misgiving about anything having to do with fairytales in general. More than once Lizzie had to remind herself that all of this didn't hold the same value, the same sort of traditional _wonder_ to Raven, that the rest of them felt for the story. The witch was good at hiding it through her enthusiasm, but Lizzie could see from time to time how awkward this really was for the witch, as if the other girl had expected there to be… _more_ to it than just acting out the part, and found herself more than a little disappointed despite herself.

As a Royal Lizzie found this incredibly amusing, to see the witch occasionally look around and blink in confusion all because being in a story wasn't nearly as scary, or as mysteriously magical, as she had once feared it would be. That, in Wonderland at least, it was more of a ceremony to celebrate the land's greatest loved hero, and to honor the descendants of the original tale with the respected titles of their ancestors.

And really there was nothing for the witch to have been afraid of; nobody lost their sense of personal freedom, or sense of self, nobody turned evil or grew to actually, really hate anybody else just because their roles were on opposite sides of the spectrum, nobody was actually trying to kill each other-… oh. _Oh_!

Well when it was put under that context, this whole affair would be more like one big therapy session wouldn't it? Until recently Lizzie never quite placed the other fairytale stories from Ever After, and how it has all affected Raven's mental health, under much scrutiny, however now she could see how much damage can be done taking things like fairytale stories too seriously and a step too far. Most fairytales by themselves didn't have to be nearly as solemn or as scary in reality, psyching everybody up to the point to where there was fear and resentment towards one another, and towards themselves, for no good reason.

Lizzie's mother did her best to prepare Lizzie to become a good queen and ruler, supplementing lessons that the classes at school were unable to teach. Lizzie understood since a very young age that having a uniting excuse to get so many important monarchs to learn at the same school was essential to keeping peace and open lines of communication to foreign lands. She still believed in it, still was a Royal despite everything.

However just because Lizzie was still a Royal did not mean that she didn't recognize that there was a major flaw in the system that needed to be desperately fixed. A new incentive to continue to send all of the royal children to the same school to be drawn up, ancient family rivalries set aside and buried, and prejudices to be killed off mercilessly and quietly, if they wanted any hope in ensuring that they all don't end up digging themselves their own graves by following Snow White and her blasted, idiotic example.

Raven was a good living lesson to keep in mind, for if someone, even if they didn't quite knew the full story, can see that the system isn't working, then it's better to stand up and freaking, _point it out_ , rather than just sit back and wait for everything to collapse down on everyone's heads.

Kind of like how it was rather essential, when floating along in a boat in the great expanse of a mighty sea, to point out to your fellow passengers the big gaping hole in the bottom of your literal floating means of staying alive!

Lizzie decided to take the initiative to take this lesson a little closer to heart than what was per usual.

Now the question was, what they were going to do about Apple White…

"Is there something the matter my queen?" Raven asked kindly. "You seem a bit distracted."

 _My queen_. Lizzie rather liked Raven calling her that, _though I'm not the one you truly wish to pledge your unwavering loyalty and love to am I, my dear friend?_ Lizzie mused to herself. It was obvious that Raven was mentally fussing over Apple again in recent weeks; one did not just give up so easily on old duties after all, and while given the right amount of time and encouragement Raven may very well be broken out of her desire to see Apple White safe and sound, pledging her loyalty, and perhaps genuine affection even, if they were both so inclined farther down the road, to Lizzie and Lizzie alone…

But at the end of the day Lizzie didn't know if she could quite stomach doing such a thing to Apple. Not unless the blonde one day went out of her way to become a _real_ enemy to Wonderland, at that point Lizzie would have gladly seen to it that Raven grow to see Apple as someone she was better off forgetting, perhaps even claiming the witch as her own just to be vindictive.

However thus far the girl has proven herself to not be a very big risk to Wonderland or to Raven. Seemingly, once they cut off Snow White's direct influence on Apple, the princess almost magically lost all interest in being an unholy terror about the whole situation, Bunny says that Apple was even going as far as to work on breaking all of her normal perfect princess habits on her own initiative!

Which was really quite the relief because there were a few habits of Apple's that were rather distressing…

"I was just thinking that I should get some formal dancing practice in sometime today." Lizzie cast Raven a teasing look, before sighing dramatically. "We both are going to be the center of attention for the next few days, and while we have been preparing left, right, and center for a catastrophe, I dare say we've neglected to prepare for an eventuality where everything actually goes to scheduled plan. There is a traditional celebratory dance and tea party after the story is completed, it's usually observed, and it very well may be observed today and we have done not a thing to prepare for it."

Raven blinked in surprise. "I suppose you're right my queen." The witch mused delicately. "We do have a spot of free time now though, for a bit of practice with dancing, and to take our minds off of certain issues…" The girl trailed off.

Lizzie smiled gently. "Come along my friend, let's share a moment of peace before the world spins us off our footing once again."

XXX

"What do we do? What do we do?" Apple worried, curled up in the witch's arms. It was all well and good to suddenly declare that she'd make her mother stop what she was planning, but when it came to actually going about doing just that…

Apple was coming up with blanks.

"Try not to run in terror of what might happen?" The witch suggested bleakly. "At least that's what I've got to do on my end at any rate. I can't defend myself with magic, or evil words, not without making the situation spin the wrong way out of control, but… then again she has always been good at dealing with actions, even when I had her trapped inside of a body of a snake she never truly lost her cool, I've never seen her try to go up against someone who simply refused to do anything before… could prove interesting…"

"She'll never leave you alone until she gets what she wants." Apple warned, clearly imagining the various ways her mother could try to provoke the witch.

"She will." The witch acknowledged. "But she's planning on winning by getting me to react the way she expects me to, if I keep that in mind and do the opposite of what she wants, perhaps I'll win this time around, for once, since the very first time since I've met her, I'll be the one to have a say in what happens next in our lives."

"And if you get hurt in the process?" Apple demands, feeling like her heart was being pulled taught and stretched between two opposing forces. "If she- if maybe- …she's already pretty stressed out as it is- so she might overdo it if she doesn't- I don't want either of you to get hurt I- I- care too much about you!"

"I know you do dear, I know." The witch soothed, rocking the child back and forth. "Don't worry, I won't let you get caught up in the middle of this. It stays between her and I this time, nobody else."

Something about that sounded off to Apple. "What do you mean-?"

Trumpets sounded out in the distance, Snow White declaring to the entire campus that their queen had just arrived.

The sun hadn't even set yet; she must be extraordinarily desperate right now to have traveled so far so quickly, in a disjointed sort of way the witch couldn't help but wonder what all the fuss was all about. After all Raven not becoming the next Evil Queen and the older witch being transferred away to reside in a Wonderlandian asylum was hardly the end of the world. All of this energy spent on freaking out over the situation instead of using her resources to find Apple a new villain and prince, to better move on and adapt to a changing world… It seemed so utterly exhausting.

What was the point in all of this anyway? Would Snow White even bother to tell her? She certainly didn't feel as though she had the energy right now to argue it out of the other woman…

This was all far too ridiculous, the whole issue left her bone-weary and listless, as if her body was giving up all the anger and resentment, not because it was the noble thing to do (she did pride herself on being the opposite of noble still), but because there was simply no more energy left!

For years she had clung onto the ideal that being the Evil Queen had meant something more important in this world than just a character on a page, she had given up everything she was for that identity, the idea that she had become one with an entity whose existence through her would prove victory to her family against all enemies, respect and eternal importance that would ensure that herself and her family were important! That they weren't mere pets to the White family, just as the Thorn Clan had become the pathetic pets to the Beauty family!

But in the end the Evil Queen had been nothing but a chain 'round her neck used by Snow White, when pulled, to make her angry and dance like some trained monkey, there was nothing magical or all-important about the title at all was there? It had all been fine and good just before Raven was born, she had done her duty to her princess and was well respected as the Evil Queen, and she had been _someone_ back then.

Now however the title was useless, and she was nothing but a fool who fell for the deadliest trap known to her kind; pride and ignorance.

She had stripped herself of her birth name; she was no longer the Evil Queen, she was only a _queen_ _monarch_ in title, which was pathetic since she had nothing to rule over, all that was left that she had not given up or had ripped away from her was the fact that she was a witch.

It wasn't much, it was barely anything at all in comparison, but it was hers, it was the one thing that could never be taken away or given up.

But would it be enough? To break old habits and to end this… this senseless madness!

It would have to be good enough. The witch decided as she patted Apple's hair, the girl was shaking like a leaf. How awful that in the wake of this mess two, perfectly innocent, _children_ had been forcefully dragged into the middle.

"I'll protect both you and Raven." The witch murmured, magic forming onto her fingertips, the digits softly burrowing between strands of blonde hair to rest daintily upon the child's scalp. "It's high time the two of you were given the chance at life that has been denied to both your mothers."

"What do you mean by that?" Apple jerked her head to look up at the woman, but it was too late, the magic already seeping into the child's skin, and within a mere moment, the girl was fast asleep, and she'd stay asleep until the sun rose the next day. Everything should be sorted out by then.

The witch tucked the child into bed and gingerly took off the girl's headband (taking note of the new silver feathered pin secured on one side), before kissing her forehead goodnight and walking through the mirror, into the dimension behind the reflections, for the very last time.

XXX

"The enemy has arrived at the school, despite her being early everyone has been rushed into position." Red Knight murmured to a keenly attentive Maddie Mad Hatter. "She was announcing her private audience with the Evil Queen just before your father had to cut the connection with me."

"Many thankies and hankies." Maddie nodded, jerking up from her seat at the head of the table as she thought about something. "If you could pretty please with cherries and icing contact Blondie Lockes to tell you if anything happens? Always good to have a backing to your backup. We'll inform Raven of the outcome of tonight when the dust motes settle."

"As you desire Miss." Chase bowed loyally before marching away.

"You're not going to tell her sooner?" Kitty raised a brow. "I know this is what our newly appointed queen would want, but you are never really the type who takes the monarchy's orders to such extremes… like ever. Because you've never ever done that. _Especially_ when Raven is involved."

Maddie huffed out a long breath through her nose. "While a certain monarch's loopty-loo actions are what are influencing my choices, our beloved queen is not the specific royal whom I am… willing to do this for. in fact-u-ous drama I am merely trying to protect my friend and give her a short span of peace before she is dragged off into that traitorous-… before Raven realizes that her heart still yearns to protect her most cherished princess." Maddie speaks archly, coldly glancing at an unsuspecting scone arrangement near her on the table.

Kitty whistled lowly. "I didn't know that you were still that furious at Apple."

"Raven loves her enough still that I'll support her should the nitty pitty need rescuing. And Raven will come for her to stay this time if the foolish princess has indeed learned her lesson while also being in need of Raven to help her learn how to crumbling walk on her own as an adult and not be held up by others like a toddler." Maddie grumbles. "However that does not mean that I'll be playing nice. In proper manners for harming my friend I shall see to it that childish princess shall only gain herself back into Raven's protections in the next few days if it's absolutely necessary. Unless that happens however I'm going to continue to advise Raven to do her best to move on from the love that she feels for her."

"Piping hot furious." Kitty muttered in awe, since Maddie rarely held onto anger normally. "Even knowing what Bunny told us about Apple's state of mind, and the fact that Raven may be the only one capable to pulling her into healthy sanity, you'd still rather see to it that Apple never goes near Raven again."

"Unless she proves herself to be able to stand up for herself, and worthy of standing beside Raven, she should take her sniffling and childish tantrums and wander off somewhere off stage." Maddie sipped her tea calmly, her tone lightly cheerful, but still barbed with venom. "She's a year before adulthood legally springs upon her. It's about time she learned that cowering behind others wouldn't prevent the really-truthlys of life from finding her regardless."

"Well I sure hope that she's got enough sense to stay out of the way in the next few hours, because if her mother doesn't drag her down into trouble, you sure seem keen on showing her exactly how unforgivably angry you are right now." Kitty snorted with a fond shake of her head.

Maddie grinned, all feral eyes and teeth.

XXX

The charmed feather clip in Apple's headband pulsed once, then twice before Apple's eyes snapped open.

"Less than ten minutes." Apple breathed, looking at her alarm clock, allowing herself a brief moment to be thankful that the first spell, she had hastily researched and cast within an hour of finding out about Snow White's impending arrival, while also evading Briar, without the older witch's supervision or knowledge had worked.

"Thankfully she was predictable enough to try a sleeping spell." Apple breathed again, leaping out of bed.

Apple wasn't born with magic, so when Apple expressed and interest in learning it the witch had, _somehow_ , "acquired" the princess a basic wand and had enchanted a small empty journal into a spellbook so that Apple could properly summon the magic in the air around her.

Learning how to cast magic had been a rather soothing distraction, something special that Apple had the privilege of learning outside of her mother's knowledge, as well a useful skill to fall back on if worse came to worse with her mother's crimes. And it was comforting knowing that if she ever needed to defend herself, or change outfits quickly to better run away, she held the capability.

Apple grimaced as she caught sight of her reflection in the mirror; still all dressed up in her usual "presiding land's Snow White princess" outfit that she had worn nearly everyday since her first day in school.

It didn't fit her personality anymore, it… didn't seem quite right. It was something her mother picked out for her, themed to resemble Apple's namesake as well as look like a modern interpretation of the dress style that her mother wore, and her grandmother, and-…

But while the dress was in the White family sense of fashion it was not a dress for a future Snow White, colored and themed with the poisoned apple in mind and not with… what Snow White was supposed to represent. Red had never been a main traditional color for a Snow White, nor was the many (many, many, and many) images of poisoned apples.

Was this intentional, or was her mother so lost inside the story, and grieving the loss of having the Evil Queen as her lover, that she was attempting to live out the last truthful happy moment of her life through Apple (And Apple was certain by now that her parents marriage had not been of the happily ever after kind, so what other explanation was there)?

Apple flicked the silver wand in her right hand, and mumbled a spell, a swirl of grey mist replacing Apple's outfit, a cone had resting atop her braided hair, sensible low-heeled, a pair of white sneakers for proper running, and a simple black dress, with an empty white leather potion belt secured around her waist, a white collar, and long, nearly puffy, gauzy black sleeves that poofed out slightly where the fabric met the shoulders and the opaque white fabric cuffs around her wrists.

"Not an apple in sight." Apple sighed in relief; many of her attempts at magically changing her outfits had resulted in far too many accents involving the aforementioned fruit for her liking.

As Apple stepped through the mirror, to the dimension behind the reflections, she neglected to notice the big stylized pretty red poisoned apple embroidered to her back, along with two more of the same image stuck to the back heels of her shoes…

XXX

The hooded and robed form sat still, nearly curled up on themselves on the reflection's floor, head bowed, stubbornly not looking up despite flinching back slightly at the sound of a familiar raised voice commanding the people below, and again when the trap door opened and somebody stomped angrily in, slamming down the trap door to the dusty attic behind her.

"Long time no see Evil Queen." Snow White sniffed airily, tone dripping with tight stress and controlled fury. "It's high time we had a little _chat_ about an issue I do believe that we both can agree on for once. There are a few things I do believe that you have been left in the dark about…"


	21. Chapter 21

In the end Raven couldn't help herself, couldn't stop herself even if she tried. This was big, and it would definitely get messy, and this time around she couldn't even count on Maddie to be a secret go-between the school and Raven, because she was still royally ticked off at Apple, to the point to where Raven suspected that maybe Maddie gleefully envisioned the princess being banished to sit in a pit of fire, or some other violent scenario if that particular disturbing little grin whenever the princess's name was brought up, was anything to go by…

The point was that Raven was no dummy when it came to people not only attempting to hide things from her, but also attempting to seriously encourage her to go in one, specific, direction in life. In this case being practically everyone from her Wonderland inner circle, in some form or another, wanting Raven to completely write Apple out of her life.

The reasons for each person varied, some, she knew, were mostly based off of genuine concern for Raven, and the actual worry that Apple might manage to harm Raven again if they were to ever meet.

The others on the other hand… well there was some definite political and personal gains to be had by keeping Raven the property of Wonderland, she wasn't naïve enough not to see that, nor was she blind enough not to see that the very popular notion at the moment, from her inner circle all the way to the people she and Lizzie served as their monarchs, was for Raven to finally give up that last thread of uncertainty, the last bit connecting herself with Apple and Ever After, and to permanently tie herself, and her future offspring, to Wonderland.

Raven had a few long vid-chats with Margarete Tampere about just this subject in recent weeks, thankfully Raven's former lover-now-friend-and-ally was willing to help ponder through the issue with Raven, weighing the pros and cons (to the best of their semi-biased abilities) between Raven remaining pliant to Lizzie's court, and Raven seeing for herself where she stood with Apple after the Tale of Wonderland was completed, and have Raven and Apple make up their own minds.

The topic of Lizzie and the popular opinion that Raven should marry her had blind sighted Raven the first time Margarete informed her of the opinion (how could it not be shocking?). But after some time to think it over, Raven did admit that as far as matches went, it would be well conceived one, and both she and Lizzie were suited to each other enough that such a relationship it could workout very well for them, both professionally and personally. In fact Raven (and Margarete shared this sentiment) was certain if she were to make the first tentative move that Lizzie would snatch her up and never let go.

The possibility was there, the timing was right, Lizzie, or any of the Wonderlandian suitors that they still pushed Raven's way, would not object to claiming Raven as one of them through marriage (and thus gain all the kingdom and political benefits all tied up in a very neat bow)… it… would be utterly perfect!

…Well on paper, it would be utterly perfect.

The issue was that Raven still loved Apple.

Raven knew Apple, knew more about Apple and the unreasonable pressures and lies that she had been bombarded with since the princess was born, and how that had shaped and limited Apple, in more ways than perhaps Apple would ever dare want to look too closely into. Raven was disappointed, and if she was perfectly honest, more than a little resentful of how Apple used to treat her, however Raven did understand that most of that negative behavior was Snow White, not Apple. That the princess did genuinely hate to see Raven in pain or in distress, and the witch had known that all the times that Raven was genuinely harmed by Apple's hand, haunted the princess terribly.

Apple, Raven knew, was naturally an overall good person. Raven had witnessed for herself that if left to her own devises in the privacy of the dorm or the forest where Apple did not have to keep up the "perfect" act, Apple could turn into the sweetest sweetheart that the witch had ever met. Someone that genuinely cared about Raven and the world around her, and had a personality that was warm, and smart, and very cleverly attractive in Raven's opinion. _That_ Apple was the one that Raven had fallen in love with, the one she was willing to stay at school for and bare the consequences of being a Rebel in such an intensely traditional environment.

But the witch could also tell that every single time Snow White called to check in (read: lecture and "kindly" bully, as far as Raven could tell), that afterwards Apple was so petrified by "not pleasing her mother" (again) that the Apple Raven knew and loved tended to recede, and suddenly it wasn't Apple Raven was talking to, it was Snow white and the result of countless hours of methodical brainwashing. An alien personality masquerading as the girl Raven cared about.

Raven never got the closure she needed, never knew just where she stood with Apple, or what had become of the princess, when the whole truth of everything tumbled down upon the princess, Raven needed to know for certain, by actually talking to Apple like two reasonable adults, if she should move on from Apple completely, or just remain friends and move on to see about perhaps kindling a romance and marriage with Lizzie…

Or perhaps if Raven stood… maybe a little chance with Apple-…?

 **No**. That wasn't very likely. But Raven still needed to talk to Apple about all of this since it concerned them both.

Most importantly of all Raven needed to know if Apple was safe. There was no way that the princess was okay, after everything that had been revealed about Snow White, there was just no way she would be okay. But Raven needed to see the damage for herself, to see if even an ounce of the real Apple that she had fallen in love with had survived all of this heartbreak and betrayal.

It wouldn't be easy; part of the reason why she hadn't outright demanded Bunny to tell her the absolute truth by now was due to the fact that Raven was petrified at what the answer may be. Along with everything else Raven _had_ directly confessed to being inappropriately in love with her former roommate, and to being considered a prince in her homeland, and Kitty had declared to the entire school about not only the nature of her violent, crippling night terrors, but also the sinister role that many of the Royal faction's population, and Apple especially, had played out in those horrifying dreams.

Raven still wasn't certain that she had recovered enough from that scary time in her life to actually deal with the issue head on, but there was not a choice for her now, this becoming the King of Hearts business was a big deal, and there was _no_ _way_ that Snow White was _not_ going to show up in some form or another to try to stop or illegitimate such an important act.

It was nice being reassured that no matter which path she chose Margarete would be supportive on Raven's side. Raven was a little sad that it hadn't worked out between them.

So here Raven was, hiding from her own friends and allies, feeling like a silly ninny while she was sneaking to and fro trying to find someplace private while also trying to look like she was simply exploring the big expanse of the Heart Castle.

Raven peered around one of the marbled columns surrounding the koi pond cautiously; in Wonderland there were ears and eyes potentially watching in the most inconspicuous of places, and normally the witch wouldn't even trust the fish if it weren't for the fact that she knew that the creatures had been imported from one of the specialty merchants in her home kingdom. They were hardly likely to have the brainpower, let alone the evolutionary capability to understand and parrot back anything to Lizzie or the others later on.

Satisfied that she was alone, but still vigilantly on guard, Raven held up her acquired phone, and dialed.

The number she had dialed went right to voicemail, so with a muttered swear Raven tried a different number.

"What could possibly be so important-… Raven?" Briar's face peered up at the witch in astonishment.

"I can't talk long." Raven hissed out quickly, looking around again in paranoia. "They still don't want me to get too involved, or informed for that matter, with whatever has been going on at school or anything to do with Apple, even when I ask they've refused to tell me anything, so I'll have to be sneaky about this. Listen; The story of Wonderland has started early, to prevent any severe conflicts with Ever After trying to get me back to be forced to become the Evil Queen I've agreed to take on one of the spare roles for the Wonderland story. There is a chance that snow White has heard about this and that she will panic and do something rash to either stop the story or make my role illegitimate somehow. Please, please, please, you've got to make sure that Apple is not dragged into the middle of this! I haven't been allowed any correspondence or knowledge of how Apple has weathered everything since my father took me out of school, for reasons of my own safety and also because Maddie and the others are still really ticked off! But I do know that this has the potential to get even uglier than it has already and I'm really scared about what might happen to Apple if she gets close enough to get hit by the crossfire between Snow White and Wonderland! Please, please help me! The others are too invested in Snow White to be too concerned about Apple; I don't think that they can afford to be! Please you have to keep her safe!"

Raven didn't know why she was desperately begging someone that, as far as she knew, would jump miles and dimensions without a second thought if there was even a whisper of Apple being in danger, maybe it was partly because Raven was really jittery about being caught, and partly an act to beg the gods to be merciful on her for once and let things turn out okay.

Regardless the look Briar was giving her was totally priceless and almost worth the risk of swiping Kitty's phone and calling people Raven knew she was not allowed to call.

"They haven't told you anything about Apple or what's been going on at school?" Briar asked, swatting off someone off screen who was making startled squawks and shouldering off another person who was attempting to peer over Briar's shoulder.

"I was ill, and really weak, for a really long time. At one point when I first got back Maddie nearly worried _herself_ sick, because she was almost certain that I'd never completely recover from my mind's own weaknesses." Raven explained. Though it had been drilled into her that _trauma_ was _not_ a weakness, it still sometimes felt as though Raven had been too weak, instead of too mortal, to have shouldered the burden of real life away from Apple until the princess could better handle it on her own.

"I'm still recovering, and I still… have those dreams from time to time. It's not nearly as horrible or bad as they had been but… it's going to take a very long time before I can heal completely, and the two recent kidnapping attempts from Ever After haven't helped." Raven continued truthfully. "They are probably right in keeping me uninformed and too busy to even try to inquire about Apple or school, since I haven't been able to summon up much energy or bravery to fight for the right to know… anything really. It's a testament to how much the others pitied me to have let me send all of those letters to Apple, even though they obviously really wanted me to have stopped sooner…"

Raven shook herself. "Regardless of my own failings in being a better former roommate and doing better at checking up on Apple... I still do care. And I'm genuinely scared of what might happen to her in the next few days, despite everything that has happened, and just about every ounce of better judgment that Maddie has been trying to instill in me, I'm still-… I'm still too much in love with her to let her get hurt anymore! Please, you have to help!" Raven confessed, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.

There seemed to be a collective gasp that faded into the sounds of many, _many_ , people murmuring amongst themselves.

"…Briar how many people have been listening in, currently?" Raven cleared her throat nervously.

"Well…" Briar looked behind, and around her, and cringed. "First off I'd like to assure you that we are already aware of the situation, that Snow White has shown up, but has not dragged Apple anywhere near the attic where your mother is, we know for sure that Apple is not anywhere near the attic or the Headmaster's office anyway because she's forcefully kicked Giles and the Headmaster out of there, and has placed heavily armed guards everywhere in that area with the orders to not let anybody within ten feet of the main school building. We all already know about you being crowned the King of Hearts from an announcement made by Wonderland this morning, It's obvious that Snow White is probably planning something dumb involving your mother. We were all just collaborating on how we could take back the school."

"We?" Raven demanded faintly. "Briar where's Apple? Is she safe?"

"We… don't know where she is. But to be fair we don't know where Blondie is either so-… yeah that doesn't help." Briar sighed, shoulders slumping. "When she first heard about her mother coming here so quickly she ran off with the intention of protecting your mother from her mother, and had practically declared that she was going to abdicate the throne while she was at it. She's convinced that Snow White might try to hurt you in retaliation or something of the like… which is sadly, probably true…"

Raven inhaled sharply. Eyes as wide as they could go. In the background Raven could hear more gasps and murmuring behind Briar.

" ** _What?_** "

"It's true!" Briar despaired. "We tried to stop her but then she jumped out a window and bit Faybelle while bolting across the lawns! She lost us several times running through the forest, the library, setting loose the dragons from the stables and base jumping off their backs-"

"She did _what_?" Raven recognized the Headmaster's voice, the witch made a small sound of mortification.

"-and then we lost her for a final time when she proceeded to leap from open window to open window al over the school grounds." Briar soldiered on, gesturing to someone in front of her to drop the dragon issue for now. "We may not know where Apple had disappeared herself this time, however we do know for certain that she is nowhere near this side of your mother's mirror, so… that's good news right?"

Raven had started to nod, but then realized that Apple probably knew that her mother would post heavily armored guards everywhere "just in case the Evil Queen got mad enough to get loose", and thus Raven considered any other options that Apple might try, the witch paling considerably within seconds of her sudden, sickening realization.

"This side of the mirror, Briar… what about the other side of the mirror? Can we say for certain that Apple didn't banish herself into the mirror dimension to try to convince my mother not to get angry at the sight of Snow White and escape?" Raven's voice shook with dread. "I mean, my mother already knows about me becoming the Crown Prince, and has thus far been too entertained by Snow White's… less than perfect reactions to everything since to say anything about wanting me to become the next Evil Queen… and she has said in recent months that while it wasn't what she had envisioned for me, it was a decent enough way to stick it to the school and Snow White, so she's been content to let me do my own thing. And I already made mom promise that she wouldn't take the bait if anybody tried to get her angry enough to escape, but with Snow White there, and if Apple is there… I-I don't think that she'd be able to control herself in that kind of scenario!"

"There's now way that Apple would do that!" Hunter's voice tried to reason. "Not after the horrific time spent to get Raven's mother back into the mirror last time!"

"Oooh yes she would! Yes, yes, indeed Apple would." Briar's face had paled as well. "Apple has been conditioned her entire life that those born in "Good" fairytale families will always win over the "Bad" fairytale families. She's been getting better about that recently but not well enough. She keeps biting Faybelle for some reason and I'm pretty sure that everyone here can agree that under normal parental rearing, not even a deranged, feral dog would try to bite someone like Faybelle, let alone let the Evil Queen out in the first place!" The girl called to whomever was listening in.

There were murmurs of agreement, but then the topic of conversation was temporarily derailed when someone piped up "Wait! I thought that Hraban girl was the Crown Prince!"

"Oh for the love of- do some people still not realize that Hraban is the same word for Raven in my home country's native tongue? That Konigin is the native term for Queen when translated into Ever After standard? That both my home countries don't speak Ever after standard as a first language?" Raven demanded a little irritably.

Sheepish muttering and more than a few snickers were her answer, along with Briar's impressive eye roll.

Raven swore under her breath. "Briar, has Apple been doing anything out of the ordinary enough for you to suspect on how she might banish herself to the mirror dimension? Because her mother had sent her one of those banishing mirrors not long after the Dragon Game fiasco "just incase I suddenly missed having my mother around", and I made sure that Kitty swiped it when my nightmares had gotten bad enough that Apple was starting to wonder if maybe she should go to my mom for help. But there's no guarantee that she hasn't gotten her hands on another one!"

"Or figured out how to get to the mirror dimension herself from all of those magic books she's been reading recently." Ashlynn was the one to point out.

"What?" Raven's swore her heart stopped.

"She's been studying magic." Briar's face indicated that she might have stopped breathing. Eyes looking at Raven but her gaze far away and horrified. "Any and all spellbooks and magic theory tomes that she can lay her hands on… her room looks more like a potions lab than a dorm room…"

"Briar…!" Raven begged, feeling faint.

The image on Raven's screen became a bit jumpy as Briar started to move, Raven studiously attempting to actively ignore the glimpses of all the people that were trying to peer down at Briar's screen as the girl shoved them aside. "Already running!" Briar called out. "You though, you just focus on being the King of Hearts, and not being caught by Kitty with her phone! Bye!" And then Briar hung up.

"Bye…" Raven frowned feeling lost, dipping her free hand's fingers down into the pond's water for the fish to nibble at while she composed herself.

XXX

Not too far away, Kitty lounged invisible atop of one of the columns surrounding the fishpond.

The girl shook her head as she stared down at Raven. "You know my King, that I wouldn't really have minded if you allowed yourself to admit that I let you swipe my phone to call Apple." Kitty sighed. "I'm already on your side with this, Cheshire cats are notorious for going against many things with their own monarchs after all."

"I still don't want you to get into too much trouble." Raven pouted, leaning her face up to the warm rays of the sum. "Maddie's good at hiding it, but I can tell that she'd sooner see Apple at the mercy of my mother's wrath than have her be safe and sound. I've never known her to be so angry. She has a right to be, what with what happened to her mother and everything… it's just that she was always so nice to me, even back when everybody thought that it was my mother who had-…" Raven trailed off looking down.

"You were never evil Raven." Kitty sighed. "Maddie knew from the second she first met you that you were nothing like the monster- I mean _bad guy_ , that your mother let everyone believe she was." Kitty censured herself out of political correctness. "Apple on the other hand, and _Snow freaking White_ … it was worse for her when you got sick, I guess you could say, I mean you're family to her, practically a Hatter yourself if I do say so myself, she didn't get the chance to know her mother all that well but she has gotten to know you incredibly well, and then when she found out that her mother had been disappeared by Snow White because she found out that your mother was not as bad of a person that Snow White wanted everyone to believe she was…"

"It broke her heart." Raven concluded with certainty.

"You were able to be there for her while you guys grew up, relate to her in ways that nobody else could, relate to her in a way that we, her fellow countrymen, couldn't. You were the best thing to happen to her when she first moved to Ever After with the other refugees. She never did ever warm up to Apple but she kept herself polite about it because you cared a lot about Apple, so of course when you started having the nightmares… well let's just say that, combined with what your father and the Queen's mother found out about the White family, it had been the last straw."

"And the rest of you? I know that your guy's reasons for being so cold towards even the mention of Apple's name is partly due to her being the daughter of your enemy… but at the same time you've never extended the same distain for me and my heritage, so why-?"

"We all have our personal reasons. Though how she used to treat you was also a factor." Kitty looked down pointedly, grimacing guiltily. "Some of it is shame though." She was going to let Raven come to conclusions on that one, it was incredibly humiliating, being held captive and quarantined because some spoiled former maiden wanted to play hero maidens in castles and burning evil witches, at least when everyone thought that Raven's mother had been the evil one Wonderland could comfort itself with the fact that she was a great warrior fighting for the glory for her family, and that she was locked up all nice and safe, that a major crisis had been adverted and that all they had to do was sit back and wait for the Grimm Brothers or Snow White to find a cure to the curse in their skies.

They had nothing now to comfort themselves for that time, Wonderland citizens had been victimized by Snow white's media, made to look like a tragic circus attraction filled with idiots who could not defend themselves from a single deranged witch the same way Ever After could, the barbaric rambling idiots who sought shelter in the skirts of someone so "worthy" and "fair" as Snow White, and on, and on the groveling voices of reporters used to swoon over the woman, taking away the issue regarding actually finding a cure, or looking into why Raven's mom went stark raving mad all of a sudden, without so very much warning at all.

No, it had all been replaced in favor of praising Snow White, for years they had all waited, and all they had gotten was more pretty speeches, and more crowds cheering the woman's title name, and no progress at all being put forth into bringing them home.

And then they had found out that Raven, or one of her blood relatives, had been the key to ending the curse and humiliation all along! Once and for all! It had been so simple, so… blatantly obvious that for none of the ones responsible to find a cure to have not known was just… unforgivable! Used as-… as nothing but toys and filler cast for someone else's validation!

It was embarrassing, and while Raven and her mother would definitely be able to understand exactly how Wonderland felt on the matter… there was a major cultural difference, as well as Raven's need to recover from her own encounter with the White family.

"Is it possible for you guys to learn to hate her less? You know if… if Briar's right and Apple really is trying to protect my mom and looking for a way to resolve all of this peacefully? I-… I'm not making excuses for how she behaved while I was at school; don't get me wrong, however… she did do what she did out of fear of her mother and kingdom rejecting her for not being impossibly perfect, she has been emotionally abused her entire life Kitty. You guys can… dislike her for putting so many people in danger all those times, and for her moments being so insensitive towards people like the Rebels… and maybe even people from other races and cultures on certain occasions, but really; she had gotten better about a bunch of things since she started living with a witch, and she wasn't even aware she was doing anything wrong! And she was super embarrassed when she discovered that terms like fox tails and newts eyes referred to old names for plants and not actual animal parts…"

Raven trailed off remembering the princess's confusion and embarrassment when Raven finally got the girl to stop squealing (half in horror, half in nervous glee) about one of the first practice spells Raven conducted in their dorm, just long enough for the witch to shove a modern herbal encyclopedia into Apple's hands, and pointed out that the _center part of daisies_ were what the ancestors referred to as " _newts eyes_ ", and that using the animal's actual ocular organs only resulted in a smelly gross mess, not an actual witch's spell.

Raven shook her head she was getting off topic. "My point is that I know what it's like being hated because you're the daughter of so-and-so that everybody hates, it's frustrating and unfair, to be covered in a shadow like that and not be allowed to leave without a fight. I know that you guys are weary because Apple was trained and conditioned to become an exact clone of her mother, but trust me when I say that even when Apple was at her worst with me… she still cared enough to stop when she saw that she had overstepped, or that I really couldn't handle another argument right then. She was willing to make concessions for me despite her fears of not getting a happily ever after, as well for others like me because she hates seeing people hurt. Despite everything bad that did happen, and despite all of Snow White's, and even Apple's best efforts… Apple _has not_ turned into her mother."

Kitty silently considered this for a moment.

"Are you trying to convince me of something, or are you rehearsing the speech that your gonna give Maddie to keep her from slaying Apple first chance she gets?"

"It's only logical to be reasonably concerned, since… yeah, Maddie's never gotten this angry to my recollection!" Raven defended, trying to sound serious but the exasperated whine still managed to escape anyway.

"Do you really believe all that stuff you just said about Apple?" Kitty questioned quietly. "Even after everything she's done to you."

"Yes. I do. …I-I…" Raven sighs through her nose. "I have to believe it. I have to believe that she's really a good person. I already know that she's capable of being a good person without the whole Snow White persona hanging over her head. I have to believe that part of her, the part that's the real Apple, is stronger than her mother's influence!"

They both fell into contemplative silence.

"Well the good news is that if Apple _really is serious_ about doing something productive to keeping the peace, and is actually successful at it to boot, then there is a chance that Maddie'll at least _think about_ not poisoning your princess's tea… or snarling at her…" Kitty mused doubtfully.

"And if Apple stays out of the way for once?" Raven demands because while it was highly unlikely, it _was_ something that Raven was actually _hoping_ for.

Kitty considered this with more consideration than what Raven had expected. "Either start practicing your best begging face, or just give it up already and marry Lizzie." The girl concluded nodding to herself. "It'd give my queen a decent excuse to dress you up in Wonderlandian clothes, and to do more of that "smirking wolfishly at the cameras every time she takes your offered arm", and all that. It'll be good for her sense of pride."

"She's definitely been enjoying the last few hours… so have I actually." Raven chuckled, closing her eyes and leaning back. "I'm certain that would be the noblest… and perhaps wisest rout to take, to court Lizzie properly and see how well becoming the King of Hearts in more than just name works out…"

Kitty smirked. "But since when have you ever done anything in life that was _easy_ and excused it by saying that it was " _only the noble way to properly do things_?"

The witch huffed a sad laugh. "Never. Not even when it would have been easier to have simply up and left right after Legacy Day. I knew that I couldn't just leave Apple when she was scared and alone like that, just as I know now that I'll never be able to move on with my life until I am certain that Apple is going to be okay, or at the very least answer the question of whether or not she wants to throttle me for the things she's had to deal with these past few months…"

Raven sighed, rolling her eyes. "And if it turns out that she really does want nothing to do with me then I'll be free of my obligations, yada, yada… however I'd think that it's safe to say that while I may broach the tentative subject to Lizzie about us cautiously courting; it's just going to be that, a cautious idea, that may or may not happen." The witch stresses pointedly.

Kitty brightened. "Spring weddings are always popular."

"Kitty!"

"I'm just saying!"


	22. Chapter 22

"Well?" Snow White demanded after she finished explaining, a heavily edited and rather overdramatic (in the witch's opinion at least) version of what had been going on since the previous school year.

It was a strange feeling; this sort of numbed apathy towards old Snowball, the witch had been utterly terrified in the moments that the other woman had first appeared… but sometime in the midst of Snowy's over the top blathering about how the witch's family's actions spelling the end of the world itself as well as anything good and decently evil, that feeling of numb apathy, quenching her violent angry need for revenge against Snow White, the same feeling that had been felt as Apple lay petrified and weeping in her arms, came back with a force that oddly thrummed in her veins and bones with a force all on their own, which was odd since all she was feeling at the moment was a sense of… peace.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" The human continued. "This is a serious matter you know! I'm surprised that you don't seem to have known about it since you've been so quiet all this time!"

The witch was tempted to just sit there and not respond but…

"Quiet?" The witch murmured as faintly, and as slowly, as a very tired, confused ghost. "I'm… locked away… you-… don't care about me. So why would you know whether or not I know anything about this, or if I'd be making any loud shouts from the confines of being utterly trapped in an inescapable prison?"

The witch noted that Snow White seemed to have been knocked off guard by her unexpected behavior. "You're in shock! You must be! If you are asking such insignificant questions at a time like this!"

Huh. Being brushed aside and lectured in the same breath, obviously Apple's theory that her mother still loved her was wrong. As far as the witch knew people who loved another person at least _asked_ if they were feeling all right, or even had the decency to look guilty by the questions she just asked. Even when they fought the Good King never brushed her worries or suspicions away like they were trivial ramblings due to… "shock".

"Well what other questions would I be asking?" The witch carefully attempted to look up at Snow White, flinched at the uncomfortable feelings the action gave her, before looking back down to her lap.

"Well a normal response would be outraged, and prompt demands to have this all cease immediately! Under the circumstanced you should be frothed up in a roar at what has happened to your daughter!" Snow White raged her voice raising, tone growing desperate.

"Why would I do that when my daughter and the man I love have achieved everything that I've ever wanted for them?" The witch spoke softly, willing forth more of this strange apathetic feeling, it wouldn't do to get angry again, _that never_ _worked thus far_ , getting angry and scaring people. She felt so exhausted by all of this; perhaps she should attempt to fall asleep right now just to cut the unpleasantness short!

The witch took the opportunity of Snow White, outright _gaping_ at her (and wasn't that a small victory in itself!), to gather her words. She had always deliberated, obsessed, practiced, all the things she might say to Snowball if they were to ever meet again, she had (what she hoped) was the correct response to get Snow White to march out in a huff and leave her alone long enough for Wonderland to spirit her away (because despite the desires of the Queen of Hearts, and her whole world practically chomping at the bit to get old Snowball to incriminate herself further… personally the witch would prefer this all to be over. Like now. Right now would be just lovely thank you).

There was little doubt that Wonderland was recording this exchange, it had to look good, she must keep control of herself at all times from here on forward!

"It is true that I once believed that having Raven follow me into obtaining victory for our land, family, and people just like in the old days, would ensure that she was protected from the inane racism and political assassination that plagues our kind every time spoiled rich "properly bred" monarchy cries _witch_ … however if even someone such as the likes of you, and the fairytale world as a whole, are in such a state… then that must mean that you lot have lost the ability to directly harm her on your own. I may be… less than equipped when it comes to my mental inability to properly grasp confusing social skills… however _even I_ have been able to piece together at least that much. And for that… my purpose, my sole reason for bullying all the realms into fearing me with those _fake illusions of curses_ … is no longer necessary don't you agree?"

The witch kept her tone soft, even, though there were points where her tone strained now and again, however she held together. Kept her body lax and tired so that the feeling of utterly not giving a damn cent anymore could flourish, hopefully it would see her through.

The witch could tell by sound of a hissing intake of breath, and the squeak of elegant white gloved hands being clenched too tight, that she had just hit something very touchy, and thus braced herself for what was to come next.

XXX

Blondie, already on pins and needles regarding what she had overheard so far, startled badly when Snow white began yelling, nearly losing her footing on the rafter that she was hiding on.

XXX

"What in the name of-?" The Headmaster interrupts his own attempt to lecture the students who had ran into Raven's old mirror before he could stop them, the students who were standing outside of the mirror behind him, and Giles, who was not being helpful at all with helping him get the students to obey and stay out, all at the same time!

Faybelle cocks her head, sensitive pointed ears straining towards the noise. "It's Snow White, apparently she's not at all happy with… it seems like Raven's mom refuses to cooperate with her… I guess…?" the fairy looks confused. "Either way it does not sound like it's going to end well."

Briar inhales deeply, turning smartly to face the Headmaster, her expression thunderous.

"You." She points sternly at the man, speaking to him in a stern tone of command that shook, and made him step back in shock. "You need to listen to me for ten seconds. Not as an old man who is regarding what he thinks to be a naïve and dumb child, but as a man who is speaking to the future Queen of the Beauty kingdom, and who knows first-hand that if he and his little brother go out there all by themselves, not only will Apple, in her current deteriorated state of mind, run away from you two, and most likely bite one of you, but she will also make enough noise to catch the attention of trouble. She does not have the ability nor the sense right now for proper self-preservation. I know this because I've been close to her for very nearly our entire lives, and she has repeatedly, and constantly done very similar things in the past few months, ask Faybelle, she's the one who keeps getting bitten when we have to chase her down."

Said Fairy grumbles bitterly in confirmation when the very surprised older Grimm Brother turns his gaze towards the girl.

"She has done this insane running around before?" The man turns back to Briar.

"Yes, she has." Giles sighs gravely, making his brother startle and turn to him with disbelief. How did Giles know these things?

"Many times." Briar confirms begrudgingly. "We told her new counselor and the healers about it of course, and between us and them we have been able to make things at school bearable enough so that Apple did not feel as though she had to do it too often… though whenever her mother called she did have the occasional breakdown…"

"I should have been informed young lady." The Headmaster turned critically to a suddenly very unimpressed looking Briar.

"Um, brother-…" Giles tried to discretely warn.

"And just what would you have done with the information, _sir_?" Briar's breath hissed softly through her nose, speaking the word "sir" as if it were something rotten. "You mean just like how you handled knowing Raven's excact state of mind? When you did not object to Raven's former therapist breaking their oath of moral discretion, and had asked Snow White to inform you with Raven's very private confidential files and health records after you looked the other way when the law, and the safety of trust with your former student had been broken? Essentially validating all the fears and the feelings of betrayal that Raven had been seeing over and over again in her nightmares to the point to where she could barely stand under the sheer misery it all brought her?" Briar glared thunderously at the old man, her tone and expression showing deep, restrained fury.

"Hey, easy now, the both of you." Faybelle stepped in between the two. "Save the shouting match for later, right now we need to focus on how the school has been put under some sort of unlawful lockdown, most of the teachers and staff have been locked up in their quarters, Apple putting herself in danger, and the fact that while the Grimm Brothers did manage to catch Raven's mom unawares once, they weren't able to do so a second time, and now we are facing not only Raven's mother but a very, very angry and desperate Evil Snow White. Right now we really need to work together."

"Miss Thorn and Miss Beauty are correct brother." Giles peered up at his brother. "The situation is indeed bad, and at the moment… I'm afraid that we've got little choice here."

The Headmaster made a withering sort of grumble, turning his glare to the ground.

"Hunter, Darling, and Cupid; please come with us. Rosabella and Daring; I want you two to stay behind in the dorm with the others and keep a good ear out for any signs that we might be in trouble. Humphrey and Dexter; try to hack past whatever is blocking our phones from calling our parents." Briar began barking out. "Ashlynn… you can come too, I might need your help, though you don't have to, it will be dangerous."

"Never stopped me before." Ashlynn stepped through the mirror to stand beside Briar.

"Alright, let's go get our girl." Briar announced, marching forward towards the sounds of outraged shrieking.

XXX

The reply from Snow White was longwinded, thunderously loud, and comprised of mostly lectures, and belittling words, as well as some rather severe name-calling, when the witch continued to endeavor to not speak and merely shrug indifferently to every heated question demanded of her.

It all only served to make Snow White all the angrier, and loud. Surely she must be audible to half the school by now, even the attic window was rattling.

Was this the real power that maidens possessed? The witch wondered. She still considered fainting at the sight of muggers, or bursting into tears every time the slightest upset happened, to be horribly ineffective… however there seemed to be something to this… indifference, this soft speaking, polite approach to being defiant while also not giving an inch to what the other party wanted. She almost wanted to giggle at the absurdity. Not that she could muster up the energy to even attempt at topping Snow White in her tantrum of wrath right now anyway...

And really… Snow White seemed to be doing a rather excellent impression of a _real_ Evil Queen at the moment. How could the witch ever have hoped to be the better villain when Snowball was so… _really_ , what was the point in being goaded into even _trying_ anymore?

It was sad, so very, very sad. And her pride may never heal properly by being bested by a loud maiden, but she was also exhausted. And sick to death of all of this. No use in acting her part now. Not anymore.

"Are you about done?" The witch sighed in exasperation, cutting off a now hoarse Snow White. "Contrary to popular opinion there are plenty of things that go on in here to keep me entertained. And unless you are willing to talk to me about _actual issues_ , and discuss topics of _real significant importance_ , then I do believe that you and your unimaginative childish temper tantrums are quite done here."

"What?" Snow White seethed.

"You heard me. Either clear the air about things that are of actual significant interest, and vitally important with me or dismiss yourself out of here." The Witch made a dismissive gesture that had the other gasping in offense.

"The game's over. I did my duty, my daughter surpassed me as sovereign to myself and my beloved king's realms, ensured the future prosperity to our family's and people's future, she turned away from fairytales while also, _as you just explained rather overdramatically_ , gained herself the title of King of Hearts along with being the Crowned Prince, therefore; I can finally retire the whole villain _act_."

"What?" The other shrieked. "But you're the Evil Queen! You can't just quit! It's who you are, who you will always be!"

"Technically I haven't been the Evil Queen in quite some time." The witch mused, gently levitating off the ground and beginning to float away. "Raven had turned her back on destiny and so by default, the title is easily passed on to whomever poisons little Apple first, like that Thorn child, or a certain _someone_ who has demonstrated an evil that far outranks anything I could ever hope to conceive and execute. And since the latter is exactly what has happened, it is fair to say that I haven't really been the true Evil Queen in years. Now if you will see yourself out I've got places to be-"

"Wait!" Snow White boomed the best she could. "What are you blabbering about? Only Raven can succeed you! And even then you would still be the Evil Queen, the one who poisoned me, and was born to be my villain!"

The witch stopped, hovering back down to the ground as she took a moment to ignore how… _violating_ the possessive tones of the other's words felt, she dared not turn around regardless.

" _Oh I dare say that you are ill informed_." The witch kept her tone light and cheerful, despite the undercurrents of intense sorrow. "For the title has indeed been ripped away from me. It is a manner of honor you see, amongst the villain community, you see, not to be upstaged by another during acts of great villainy… I am afraid that there was someone, who ended up upstaging me so greatly that I cannot in good conscience falsely bear the title of Evil Queen any longer."

"What are you talking about?" Snow White's tone softened considerably, turning much kinder. "You're the Evilest villain in known history, even now, entire worlds still cower under your name and the curses plaguing their skies, you are imprisoned for a hundred years in a mirror! No Villain has been imprisoned in a mirror since… well history was never my greatest subject, but only the vilest people get put into mirrors!"

"Actually they don't use mirrors very often because they make such fragile prisons." The witch struggled to keep her tone chipper. "I never understood why they would put me into a place like this, let alone allow me to stay in a school full of children. I mean, I know that I don't have it in me to be evil enough to do _anything more_ than banish a kid into this realm, or turn them into animals, but _they_ don't know that. In fact, I'd say that a mental hospital would have been more of a fitting choice. The curses that I used were nothing more than harmless illusions and not even my reasoning for trying to conquer foreign lands were very… evil when you come to look at it, nothing but the act of a desperate woman, who was unable to understand how to best protect her family so she… clung onto an imaginary ideal of her long dead ancestor and hoped for the best… and through it all I have been upstaged! How could I ever bear the title in such disgrace?"

It hurt, but there was no use hiding anymore, she could not use her magic, or her wrath to protect her already destroyed pride, she could not do anything, save perhaps hope that Snow White would allow her an opening to flee with dignity, and perhaps incriminate herself by trying to break her out.

Maybe? Hopefully? Oh, she really didn't want to run away in tears! Oh if Raphael were to see her now he'd be so utterly distraught!

"Being imprisoned away from my lands, people, daughter, and the man I love… none of this was worth being known as the evilest villain ever, and now that my daughter has forged her own path to the throne, and no longer needs my protection the value of Evil Queen has lessened into nothing. And it is by far not a fate that I'd ever dare want to see my daughter in!" The witch continued on softly, feeling immensely homesick. Hoping that being so utterly defeated would turn the other off and entice her to actually leave! "Go. Leave me here. I do not know how you could possibly have believed that I could do anything about what troubles you behind these panes of glass, let alone think that I'd even want to change anything. Raven is safe with her father now, that is everything that I could have ever asked for."

Snow White is silent for a long time, the witch hopes that the other will just take the hint already and _leave_!

"…How could you have allowed yourself to grow so completely pathetic?" The witch's hopes are dashed at Snowball's incredulous voice.

"And what is this babble about being upstaged? Who could have possibly upstaged you? You're the perfect villain! I made sure of it!" Snow White roared. "No one else even comes close! So snap out of whatever nonsense your head has been filling with and be the Evil Queen that I need to stop this-… this nonsense! Can't you see that your so-called "beloved" Good King has poisoned you and your daughter's minds! How selfish can you be? Sitting here feeling sorry for yourself for no good reason, while out here your ex-husband-"

"We are still married."

"- _Soon to be ex-husband_ has upset everything good and pure in the world with his lies, brought the idiots of Wonderland with him, and now I'm facing my own people demanding that I step down from the throne and my popularity points are at an all-time low! Can you believe that? Me! Snow White! The best story, the best maiden, the best fairytale of them all, not the most popular anymore! It's- it's… inexcusable! Whatever happened to the Evil Queen I used to know?"

"She did her duty, she completed her role to her princess, she gave her princess the prince that she always wanted, and then that same princess told the Evil Queen to go away because she wanted nothing to do with her former lover. So the Evil Queen quietly went away, found someone that she could love and someone who loved her back, had the most beautiful baby girl, and then, for reasons that I still cannot fathom, you came back into my life and broke my heart. So I got over my love for you and moved on to protect my family from you, the only way I knew how." The witch spoke emotionlessly.

"Must you use the term _lover_?"

"What else would you call pulling me into your bed every other opportunity?"

XXX

Briar winced as it almost felt like most of the group following her were simultaneously attempting to suck all of the air out of the entire dimension just by breathing in. The Headmaster sounded like he was going to have a conniption, he was spluttering so badly.

She glanced over at Faybelle (the only other person in the group who had already known about Raven's mom having an affair with snow White), who was, to give her some credit, doing her level best to keep from outright cackling in a combination of amused glee and self-depreciating horror (the fairy may be over her not-so-secret crush on the Raven's mom, but that did not mean that overhearing this was any less easy). The fairy met Briar's gaze and shrugged, as if to say; "hey, they had to find out sometime right?"

Rolling her eyes Briar crept forwards, scanning the surreal terrain for any signs of Apple.

XXX

Apple paused in her sneaking when her ears picked up the sound of startled whispers echoing around the dark void of the dimensional plane. When she turned around to look all she could see were looming dark shadows, some with eyes that appeared to glow, others looked like they were carrying weapons, they were all creeping closer in the… not so far distance.

A few of said shadows (most seemed keener on listening in on the Evil Queen and Snow White) seemed to be eyeing her curiously as well.

Apple, doing the reasonable thing, ducked behind a cluster of mirrors and steadily but swiftly took evasive maneuvers.

XXX

Snow White flushed, clearing her throat awkwardly. "A shameful diversion that a pure maiden like myself should never reflect on… however what happened, happened and despite how that awful man and those dear misguided Wonderland forces portray me, the perfection of my story and the fairness of my birthright absolves me from… both the act as well as the memory."

"If you abhor our past affair so completely then why did you send me those letters after Raven was born?" Calm, the witch had to keep calm.

"It had to be done." Snow White replied coldly. "Villains aren't supposed to get happy endings, not if the story is to remain perfect. Besides that, he was obviously poisoning your mind for you to have thought otherwise."

"So you knew that I'd get angry, that I'd attempt to scare you off. But if it was only just an act of "business" with you then why go after my daughter? Why do you care so much about what I did in my personal life away from prying eyes? Why lock me up here in a high school instead of a proper institution? The Grimm Brothers knew of my mental condition, and they are highly unlikely to have approved in keeping me locked up here considering how dangerous I can be, unless a royal authority… did something to change their minds. They were the ones that helped tutor me to keep me out of the special needs classes. They're too compassionate to have let someone with my type of brain rot here without-"

"The Grimm Brothers a just two old men who constantly bicker about fairytale social direction, they don't actually _care_ about a nobody like you." Snow White sniffed. "Don't try to lay that blame on me, I… might have _advised_ that keeping you here would be for the best, fairytales keeping control of rogue fairytales and everything, but in reality they were more concerned with how best to get over the _embarrassment_ of a _nobody_ gaining undeserved attention."

"I'm pretty sure that would be the last thing anybody with half a rational brain would be worried about given the situation." The witch sighed tiredly. Blinking when her ears picked up a strange, strangled sort of noise in the distance. It was almost like an aborted shout. Were some of the chains that littered the mirrors of this dimension clanging together again? "I bet that you had something to do with them never finding out that my blood relatives could have easily lifted the curse illusions? 'Cause I don't see either of them, especially Giles, being so willing to keep so many people scared and quarantined. Never mind that any halfway decent court appointed psychologist would have found out about everything just by spending two seconds with me."

"Oh don't sound so cold." Snow White scoffed. "I did it all to save you from _yourself_ , and I'm glad I did, just look at you! Your role in my story was already flawless, and that was all well and good but it's nothing special, there are plenty of villains who know how to act the part, but you, my goodness, when you are properly motivated you out shown them all! Could you possibly see anybody fearing you nearly as much as a villain if they knew that you are defective in the head? Where would my story be if people knew about that embarrassing fact? Disgraceful!"

"Unintentionally making you profit from it all sure did help ease what little maidenly conscience you probably don't have." The witch muttered feeling sick to her stomach.

"It's not _easy_ being _popular_ my dear, it's actually a lot of hard work, don't be jealous, just because you were born to be un-loved is nothing to be ashamed of. I merely did my duty, since you are my villain, the good must always triumph over the evil and all that." Snow White crooned nastily.

"The only thing that I'm ashamed of is ever meeting you in the first place!" The witch whipped around to glare. "This isn't high school anymore Snowball, taking advantage of a disabled person's fear, to get back at me for the audacity of moving on from the story, _or whatever is bugging you_ , doesn't cut it! Constantly manipulating people and pulling off _these… horrible acts_ all because you're so freaked out about being popular-"

"I'd watch my tone if I were you!" Snow White fumed. "I am Snow White, the fairest of them all, the best story of them all, the most perfect maiden of them all-!"

"Is that what you told the Hatter's wife before you made her and her team disappear?" The witch hollered, tears of frustration and anguish pricking her eyes. "Is that what you told yourself when you disrespected my honor as a villain and told everyone that my harmless illusions had killed off the first research team? What of my daughter, my family, my people? What lies of what being the fairest means did you tell yourself in order to justify any of this? I am- _I was_ a storybook villain, _I am_ a witch, _I used to be a queen_ with a _happy_ marriage and a _happy_ life! _None_ of that had _anything_ to do with you! My curses weren't even dangerous to others!" Her voice grew softer, tears threatening to spill over.

"It's the fact that you weren't willing to go the extra mile to become the villain that my story _needs_ to stay the fairest is why I had no choice but to steer you back on track!" Snow White howled. "A real Evil Queen would've used a real curse, with real forbidden magic! A real Evil Queen wouldn't be sitting on the floor like you are, concerning herself with nonsensical things, and deluding herself that what her ex-husband-!"

"We're still married and in love!"

" _Shut up!_ Do you have any idea how much damage that man has done to your mind as the Evil Queen? What that means for _my_ rightful place as the most popular story? I had to interfere! Don't you see? You've become so domesticated that you didn't even use a real curse for your greatest act of villainy!"

The witch shook her head. "A real curse spell would be crossing the line! Not only harming my honor as a storybook villain but also putting myself as well as everyone else in danger! A curse of that size would be too unstable against all of the natural magic lingering in the air of all of those realms! I've never even directly or indirectly killed anybody! I never had to! Never wanted to! Do you not realize what you have done? You stole my name that day! I am no longer the Evil Queen, I am but a witch without a name, or honor, or a home! I had been nothing but loyal to you up until then, did my duty to you and _our_ story, not _your_ story but _ours_ -! And yet you still came back to take away my new life? Does that sound like the acts of a fair maiden to you? Does making the lives of so many live in fear of being cursed and killed by fake illusions mean _nothing_ to you?"

The witch nearly choked on a dry sob at the other's tense silence. "Oh Ancestors Snow! Please tell me that research team is alive and well somewhere! They were innocent civilians! They had nothing to do with fairytales!"

"W-why are you so concerned about that? Evil Queens aren't supposed to care about anything but causing fear and mayhem and brooding till the end of their days because they lost out to those who were better than them and now they'll forever be unpopular!" Snow White snapped. She was very angry the witch noted, angrier than she ought to be given the circumstances, what the Mad Hatter right? Had all of this been nothing more than a means to punish her in the beginning? For moving on from Snow… from what they used to be together? And then when turned into a "praise the Snow White" fest, did Snowball find herself unable to resist old habits?

"…Snow, our old classmates have moved on from the social structure of the school hallways! This is the real world Snowball, not a fairytale, using people's fear of being killed or worse by this… _idea_ of an evil villain that doesn't even exist is not only un-maidenly but it's inhumane as well!" The witch tried in a, rather damp, reasonable tone.

"Bite your tongue! You were the one born to be un-liked and unloved, not me! I'm the fairest of them all! The most popular! _And I always will be_!" The other woman snarled savagely, before pausing, casting the witch a sly look with a smile that made the witch's skin crawl.

"…Just like your daughter will eventually see that she was born to be just like her mother, that it's her destiny to be nothing but an unloved, unwanted cur in the face of my legacy! I'm the one who worked so hard to make Apple into almost as perfect of a maiden as I am after all, in comparison to how long, and how laborious of a chore, it took to train Apple, it will be next to no trouble at all to break that horrible little streak of rebellion that Raven's father has instilled in her. I'd even go as far to say that with my own personal attentions, little Raven will be an even better villain than you within the year! Just in time to poison Apple and fulfill destiny as it should be. But don't worry, I'll take good care of Raven, give her a proper home, and save her from the false one she is currently living in!"

XXX

Bile rose in Apple's throat, all thoughts about being followed by unknown shadows being forcefully pushed aside. Keeping a careful watch at the two quarreling figures ahead, the princess began running forwards, keeping herself hidden behind mirror after mirror.

XXX

For a moment the witch admitted to herself that she did entertain the thought of smiting Snowball dead, but regardless she visibly swallowed her fear, and her tears, for the sake of her daughter's safety. She comforted herself that she was not alone this time, Wonderland was surely hearing all, and that Snowy was all bluff and no substance right now. She was only trying to make the witch mad enough to flare up and do something stupid. _Just like always_.

"Oh cut the theatrics Snowy, we both know that it's far too late for that plan to work, and I am just sick and tired of you using the same tricks to try to get me mad, and confused enough to use my powers for something stupid, like making you look better in comparison. Making others focus on me so that they only see the glitter and smiles you put out, never braving to look closer at how their supposed " _savior_ " is just as much a part of the problem as I. No more of that, you understand? My obligations to you ended the day I poisoned you, and my love for you was successfully squelched when you broke my heart with those letters and threatened my daughter's life. You have long ago ceased to be the fair princess that I once cared so much for! The disrespect you paid to my honor as a villain, as well as the un-maidenly way you treated my loved ones _is inexcusable for a proper Snow White!"_

Snow White bared her pearly white teeth; contrasted against the blood red lipstick (and the odd way her frightfully pale face did not wrinkle up like a normal person's would, must be Botox treatments), her fists shaking up and down as if she were in a fit, the effect was more of that of a demonic child, rather than angry fair maiden and adult queen. "Proper-? Disrespect to-? You little-!"

Suddenly getting the creeping sense that she was the only grown adult in this conversation (and wasn't _that_ an utterly depressing notion), the witch pointed sternly at the other, smartly interrupting Snow White before she could find her words. "Not so little anymore Snow. Neither are you. Seriously, I can barely recognize you all caked over in face paint, hair dye, and… whatever you've injected into your lips and cheeks… _ew_ … Though that doesn't make me being upstaged in villainy by a deranged young woman any less humiliating, nor your complete bastardization of the woman that you are _supposed to represent_ any less traitorous to the rest of us! You-…!"

A flash of braided blonde hair, an unmistakable apple graphic on the back of a black dress, a pair of sneakers peeking out from under the mirror that Snow White's seething face was glaring at the witch…

"…You know what? This entire conversation has been nothing but a waste of my time." The witch decided quickly, sweeping up to her feet in a swoop of skirts and long sleeves. Slender hands flourished with magic, discretely sending out a spell to shield the mirror's glass, in case of any… _rash_ shattering actions by the unstable queen, while pulling the large hood of her robes up to hide her face. "A pointless, unimportant, exceedingly tiresome waste! I am so over you, for good and forever false fair one!" The witch tsked in the most disgusted tone she could summon up behind wet eyes and a sniffling nose, as she swiftly walked (read: ran, but at a dignified clip) out of view in favor (much, much more preferred favor), of going after Apple.

" _Clawstorm Wait_! Don't leave me-!" Snow White shouts, but the witch has already caught sight of a sheepish looking Apple by now, and was within range to erect a silencing half-bubble around the two of them, no sound coming in, no sound coming out.


	23. Chapter 23

A/n: Sorry for the slow updates, I've been… feeling a bit down, as well as a touch ill as of late.

Hope you like this chapter, the story is wrapping up.

XXX

"I apologize for any inconvenience this may have been brought to you, being summoned in this manner, however under the circumstances I hope that you will all agree that it is of utmost importance that you've been called here. As my friend, the Queen Mother of Hearts, has explained to you the gravity of the situation." The Good King stood at the center of the very large round ballroom, back to back with the Queen Mother of Hearts, all around them prominent members of fairytale families who were either native to the kingdom or were current allies, stand apprehensively.

"We have been able to bypass whatever Snow White has set up to block outgoing and incoming calls via Cheshire magic, however since only a very few individuals can actually use the magic, and our spies have been boxed into a small corner, we need your help in brainstorming how we can go about locating where your children and friends are so that we can quietly evacuate the school in the event that either my wife or Snow White tries something violent." The Good King continues.

Queen Mother of Hearts glances questioningly to one of her aids standing attentively above them on the circular indoor balcony overlooking the ballroom floor with the other aids and the concerned family members of the assembled group. "The Good King's wife is cooperating, and to give her some credit, doing her best not to use her magic or any form of violence that might escalate the situation. We are still hopeful that Snow White will simply give up and leave however we must prepare for… all possibilities of this going south."

The room went grimly silent.

"I- well _we_ had always suspected that there was something off with those curses." Bad Wolf shared a knowing look and a firm nod with his wife, shifting their youngest daughter slightly in his big, muscular arms. "I mean, sure she's one of the most powerful witches in recorded history, but not even she would have been able to summon up curses of the magnitude and the type that was described in the media without either getting herself killed or worse."

"Lots of us knew that old Snowball had obviously been overdramatizing the entire situation. Using Clawstorm to make herself feel like the more popular one, just like she always used to do in High School." Red Riding Hood snorted, crossing her arms and glaring at the middle distance darkly. "And those of us who had been the closest to Clawstorm had suspected, but could of course not convince bloody-well anybody to be brave enough to take a closer look, into Snowy's roll in all of this!"

Ramona blinked. "Clawstorm mama?" The teen asked in confusion, her sister Cerise giving their mother a similar look of confusion.

"Our queen's birth name dears." Red Riding Hood clarified. "Under the circumstances… well as much as it pains me to say it; she can't really be classified as the Evil Queen anymore can she?"

The hooded woman looked around questioningly. "Can she still be? I mean after everything that's been revealed… that has happened, Snow White has stolen that title hasn't she? I know that maidens don't have the same sort of honor coding for when a fair princess turns out to be even more evil than the designated villain, but villains do."

"Correct." The Evil Fairy confirmed, not looking happy. "Under the circumstances your old roommate can no longer be considered the villain of our generation's Snow White story, and all of her previously considered villainous actions, including her slight against my role, now cannot be deemed villainous, nor truly evil. That's not counting of course, the fact that she had been upstaged, and upstaged terribly by a maiden of all things. The villain community does not see acts of self-defense as viable cases of villainy."

The Crumb cousins peer around either side of Ginger to give each other confused looks before gazing up at mentioned witch imploringly. The two had left school of their own volition (and against their parent's strict orders), not long after Ginger had left. Refusing to go back despite their convictions that they were still part of the Royal faction through and through. It seemed that the two had become rather attached to Ginger over the past two years, so much so that it was to the point to where they had come up with a sort of… compromise between keeping their story while also honoring Ginger's need to not be portrayed as a villain or as a cannibal.

In fact, according to the Crumbs, they had already completed their story; they had traveled through a forest or two (and hopped a ride on the new train system) to get away from the "most fearsome form of cannibalism of them all" (to which very few, surprisingly enough, had been able to outright refute _politics_ as a form of legitimate cannibalism, and even fewer had been able to form decent arguments against seeing politics as a form of cannibalism…) and traveled all the way back to the homeland, and had since moved in with Ginger, "A Happy Ending" the two had deemed it.

The Headmaster had been literally clutching at his hair for days after the two had suddenly disappeared without anything more than a brief note (Which had read: we've decided to fulfill our story. We are escaping the fearsome political cannibal of this realm and are going to search for a safe haven with the nice cooking witch, and live happily ever after in our own homeland, forever loyal to our people and our new family), and Giles still wouldn't stop laughing about it, every time it was mentioned he'd either chuckle or cackle.

"Upstaged?" Asks Gus quietly. "What that mean? Why is she not a villain now?"

Ginger shook her head. "It's because she did all of this for the sake of protecting her family and people in the best way she knew how." The witch explained in a hushed whisper. "Villainous acts must only be conducted either for the sake of the story, or for a purely personal basis, no matter how much damage or how horrible those acts were initially. Essentially they're saying that Snow White has stolen the right to be the true Evil Queen, because she is acting more like the Evil Queen than her designated villain was."

"Has anybody had any better luck with contacting the children still at the school?" Hunter's mother piped up fretfully. "Has anybody heard from my boy?"

The Evil Fairy, Good King, and several others either turned to the staff or family members who had been requested to keep trying to call Ever After High. Only to receive firm shakes of the head in the negative and one or two frustrated swear words in response.

"Why is she doing this?" Mrs. Huntsman demanded. "Why bring our children in the middle of her vendetta against her former villain and her family? I thought that the school and village had security forces set in place to prevent this kind of thing!"

King Charming coughed. "Ahem… actually those security forces are employed by the residing monarch of Ever After so…"

"So our children are currently at the mercy of a madwoman!" Cinderella snapped in despair.

"My Blondie had begged me to let her take one of the hero classes so that she could be better able to run obstacle courses and climb things… ooh I can't believe that she is trapped in there with those two! What was she thinking?" Goldie Locks was nearly in tears at this point, the five or so rather large bears that cuddled around her huffed softly, trying to comfort her by cuddling impossibly closer.

"If it comes down to it we will rip open a portal to Wonderland and rush her as far away from Ever After as possible mam." The Good King promised. "We are determined to see her safe and sound as soon as possible. We want to see everybody's children and friends safe and sound."

"Then let's do this!" Queen Charming declared savagely, clutching the hilt of her sword. "We have been led by our collars for far too long by that horrible woman, it's time she was taught a lesson about using us all like her own personal toys!"

"Happily." Red Riding Hood cracked her knuckles determinedly, intense feral gleam in her eye. "I've still got a score or two to settle with old Snowball from the old days."

"As do I." The Evil Fairy intoned stoically, idly playing with a ball of blackened lightning.

"I'm more than happy to help you lot, the devil woman's got my boy! Nobody messes with my baby boy!" Mrs. Huntsman declares savagely. Looking over to Cinderella and her husband. "I'll do anything to get Hunter and that nice Ashlynn girl back safe. You can count on that your highness."

"Thank you Eryn." Cinderella sniffled. "That means a lot right now."

"We are hoping for a bloodless end to this affair." The Good King reminded worriedly as almost on cue more people (mostly the women oddly enough, much to the increasing unease of the male population of the room), made their own war declarations.

"Of course we will aim for a bloodless resolution my dear friend." Queen Mother of Hearts smiled serenely. "However a good tactician must always prepare for the event where one must do what is necessary to defend the children. No matter the cost. Our enemy should be smart enough to see how foolish she is being. And if she doesn't… then she doesn't."

The good King shivered, somehow he really didn't want to find out what would happen if Snow White didn't take the hint.

XXX

Apple sighed, patting the sobbing witch's back and returning the crushing hug the elder had trapped her in. they were a fair ways distance from the main mirror that her mother was still shouting into, Apple feeling that it was necessary to guide the witch away before the woman couldn't hold herself upright any further.

"You did great. I've never seen my mother so furious since the day Wonderland and the Good King announced that Raven would never come back to school… and the day after Legacy Day, she was really mad then too." Apple mused for a lack of anything else to say. "Your family is unusually good at making her blow her top."

The witch gave a wet choked chuckle, sniffling down big breaths in an attempt to calm herself.

"You shouldn't have had to see you mother in that light." The woman murmured, petting Apple's hair.

"Seeing the truth hurts a lot less than seeing her keep up the lies." Apple huffed through her nose. "Her constantly admonishing me I mean, because I'm never perfect enough as a maiden even though she's…"

"Yeah, she's definitely…" The witch shakes her head. " _I_ think that you've been doing an excellent job as a princess, for what it's worth."

"Thank you!" Apple preens.

"Though you do seem to harbor a distinct lack of self-preservation." The witch pulled back to look at the girl "Didn't I just tell you to not come in here? …How did you get in her? That sleeping spell should have kept you in dreamland until morning!"

Apple tilted her hat to the side. "I had lost my friends' shadowing me long enough to charm this old pin of Raven's with a sleeping spell antidote. I had a feeling that either you or they would try to keep me knocked out until whatever happened between you and my mother, happened."

The witch couldn't quite keep the smile off her face. Such a clever little girl! "And we have good reasons to want you as far away from this madness as possible you know. Have you not already been through enough?"

Apple squared her shoulders. "If I continue to be afraid of the realities of my life then how will I ever grow into the competent, independent person that Raven has always encouraged me to become? The actual good person I have the potential to be if I can just move on from fairytales! I've spent so long believing lies, and being afraid of resigning myself to a bleak and desolate future if I do not live up to every single expectation or order that my mother has burdened upon me, that I've ended up creating a situation far worse while trying to keep true to Snow White. I've always been warned against not doing what my mother tells me to do, been shamed for considering other paths in life to take, so I always followed my mother's orders unquestioningly, always worked to become the living embodiment of what my dead ancestor was supposed to be like, and I tried to keep other people from living their own lives! In trying to become the fairest of them all, and to keep fairytales as my mother and my tutors had always insisted on how they should be I've only managed to become the opposite of not only what I was supposed to become… but also of who _I_ wanted to be."

"You were just scared Applecakes." The witch tried to soothe. "I, more than most, know how it's like trying to an impossible ideal. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"But in being so insistent in making everybody conform up to the same level of ideals that my mother placed on me I only ended up hurting others and driving them away! Raven became so ill because of me that she could hardly stand on her own by the time her father took her away!" Apple looked down, shame blooming in her chest so intensely that she swayed by the force of it. "She never had to stay, she could have left anytime she wanted to after Legacy Day. She stayed for me. To protect me from reality breaking through my narrowed worldview before I was ready to accept that not even a fairytale could protect me from life. She stayed. She tried to teach me how to survive a life after the story was over, and for all of her troubles I was… I wasn't much of a friend, nor was I a good listener… she always said that I was the nicest, fairest person she knew, but that must have been her love for me talking because I know that I wasn't. How she grew to love me so dearly is utterly mystifying."

The witch was silent for a spell, thinking. "My Raven is smart dear, and she has little patience for complete fools, you may not see it but you truly are kind and fair, from what I've observed the damage only came from your unwavering belief that as long as you kept yourself true to your fairytale traditions nothing bad would ever happen to you or the people you cared about. Trust me, I know, I've made the same mistake after all."

Apple looked shyly up at the woman. "I didn't just come in here because I needed to see my mother reveal her true self for once, I also came here to protect you from her if it came down to it. I know that getting in the middle of the bad feelings between you two would be very foolish, but I figured that if I could somehow distract her with a spell, or toppling that mirror over then it would break up your argument long enough for you to escape."

"Something I might've been immensely thankful for if I had not been able to leave when I did." The witch inclined her head in acknowledgement. "However as a grown adult I do have reservations of a daughter having to see that sort of behavior from her mother. Not only that but there will be repercussions dwelt upon your mother from all the things that she's confessed to doing, on tape might I add."

"Wonderland got the attic bugged." Apple didn't sound surprised.

"Bugged and inhabited by half of Wonderland itself more like." The witch grumbled, standing up. "Come along, we can discuss this somewhere else. I don't want you to see the pandemonium that is going to be rampant in the next few days if I can help it. Maybe I'll distract you with teaching your inquiring mind a few more self-defense techniques since you insist on growing up to be the type of magician who goes out of her way to find trouble and mischievous conduct instead of advoiding it."

"There was something following me in the shadows." Apple informed urgently. "I think it… or _they_ , were attracted by all the yelling."

"It wouldn't be the first time that creatures native to this dimension or the occasional passing prisoner came close enough to my territory." The witch mused. "Don't worry, you just turn invisible and keep a hold of my skirts, I've gained quite the reputation for being the single most dangerous thing in here, as well as something that did no harm to others as long as I was left alone."

Apple's eyes were wide as her non-visible form quietly followed the witch out of the magical circle.

XXX

"Clawstorm!" Snow White screeched, pounding her fists to the mirror's glass. Putting all her weight into each blow only for it all to be naught as the witch's magical shields held strong, impervious to both her physical punishment as well as her desperate pleas. "Clawstorm you can't do this to me! You can't leave me like this! You have to make them stop! I am Snow White; they are not allowed to doubt my fairness! They are not allowed to judge me, or say that I don't deserve everything that I've worked so hard for! Clawstorm stop being a coward and come back her right now! I'm the one that made you who you are today, you owe me Clawstorm! You owe me your entire life as a villain! Without me you'd be nothing! Nothing you hear me? _Nothing_!"

Slowly, ever so slowly, Blondie's muscles unlocked from their frozen positon of complete and utter shock and horror, allowing for the emotion of mortification (for having to see her nation's queen and state symbol act so immaturely) to well up to the point to where the girl stuck her fingers inside her ears and tried to block out the rest of Snow White's embarrassing tirade as the woman grew more desperate, and… frankly Blondie really did not want her brain to meditate so much on the scary threats, or the screeching volume, or just about anything going on with the woman, because at the moment the blonde was more concerned with escaping safely without being seen and did not want to get too distracted.

Looking around wildly Blondie nearly startled off her perch for what felt like the hundredth time in the past half-hour or so, when she spotted Kitty's mother curled up on the support beam beside her. The Blonde forcefully biting her own tongue to keep from crying out at the sudden realization that she wasn't the only one spying in this room.

The mentioned woman noticed, casting one last glaring grimace down at a still raging Snow White, before she put her finger to her lips to stem the torrent of questions that Blondie was just itching to ask, instead the girl stayed as still as possible as Kitty's mother silently slipped from her rafter, to curl protectively behind Blondie, steadying the girl's trembling hands around the pad still recording the entire exchange below.

"So it's come down to this has it?" Snow White gritted out, leaning heavily on magically protected glass, eyes wide and furious, muscle and tendons tensed to their limits, breath coming out in deep, quick bursts. "When everything has gone wrong and the tale of Snow White needs her villain to right the wrongs and bring things back to where they are supposed to be you turn your back. Just when it all really matters the perfect villain from the most perfect story ever has turned her back on her princess. Turned your back on me! Your princess Clawstorm! Your princess! The one that you are supposed to-… you're supposed to…"

Snow White hiccupped, leaning her body limply against glass, tears overflowing. The spots where her body met were silhouetted with purple light.

"You can't ignore your princess… you can't just… forget about me… you can't! you're _my_ villain! You're supposed to have an unhappily ever after and never… you're not allowed to just move on! What kind of perfect villain moves on from their princess?" Fists, sore from previous exertion, banged on the glass, softly at first but as Snow White continued to talk the force slowly grew back in strength.

"I won't allow you to just throw me away!" She seethed with renewing fury, her tone indicating a layer of something that was not quite sane. "You are my villain, I am your princess, your queen! Your role in my story only ends when we breathe our last at the end of our lives in this mortal world!"

Snow White, ducks down to swipe up the scepter she had dropped to the floor in shock back when Raven's mother had announced that she didn't want to be the Evil Queen anymore, takes something round from the folds of her skirt and jams it onto the top of her royal scepter, Kitty's mother hissing lowly as the room is suddenly all aglow in unsettling dark green light and creeping shadows.

"It wasn't easy for me to do, especially when Charming started hanging around my royal presence more than what was appropriate for someone as fair as myself, he never was able to grasp how to uphold correct form after Apple was born. Honestly such a waste, if only he hadn't grown into such a media hog, everybody knows that once the heir is born and Prince Charming becomes the king, the current Snow White must take the primary role in all public affairs while the heir takes up all the secondary roles." Snow White scoffed with a disapproving shake of her head. Blondie wondered why talking about Apple's dad was so relevant right now, the effects of whatever kind of magic being used was frightening, and in comparison the sudden monologue about the king seemed both random and shallow.

"He kept going on about wanting to be a better king for his new home country, about wanting to be more informed, more " _involved_ ", and other such voiced discomforts about him being a bit unprepared for no longer being the most sought after guy in all the realms." Snow White continued with a roll of her eyes.

"Honestly between his persistent whining and your family's inability to cooperate, it is little wonder that my life has been made so frustrating as of late. Obviously being queen has made me soft, my greatest downfall has always been that I've thought so kindly of others, hoped for them to grow into their own roles and have the sense to keep things as they should be, only to be presented with problems because I had assumed that some people could continue their lives without my supervision. Obviously I've become the only one still qualified to keep the story on track."

Out of the corner of her eye (since her sense of self-preservation was more concerned with keeping both eyes locked on an increasingly disturbing version of Snow White) Blondie could just make out the shape of a top hat creeping around the shadows, and a fluffy white blur stealthily hopping along behind the queen.

"I'll bring you back your old evil glory; it's what I came here to do after all, and in the process I also gave Charming what he had always wanted… granted being one of your victims, that people will come to believe was left behind at my palace as both a warning and an attempt to ruin my happily ever after completely, may not be what he had in mind, and the task had been very messy but-"

Klaxon sirens wailed catastrophically inside Blondie's head, the internal sound of distilled alarm coupled with the fact that her entire body almost felt like one big, loud rapid heartbeat drowned out most of what the woman said next. Kitty's mother noticeably had to take up the task of holding the suddenly very terrorized girl upright.

"Well at least he had gotten what he always wanted, this way his sacrifice will serve my kingdom quite well once I've risen back up in the popularity polls. To stay up this time surely, especially since the fairytale community will have me to thank for single-handedly ending that blasted Rebel skirmish amongst their children. Thanks to me, and in extension, you, everyone will realize the dangers of going off script, and everything will go back to normal, better than normal even! For I will have virtuously forgiven you, above all odds, for your obvious distress over the extent of your family's actions!"

When the statement was met with silence Snow White blinked, shifting from foot to foot.

"Nothing to say? How unlike you, has being beaten by the good guy at your own game made you sulky? Or has prison simply released you of what little spine you used to have?" She taunted with a bland smile.

The smile slowly started to fade as the silence continued to stretch.

"Clawstorm?" Snow White asked uncertainly. "Evil Queen? …Did you not just hear what I said? Hello? What could you possibly be doing that's more important than responding? Clawstorm?"

"She is not anywhere close enough to be able to hear you." A very male voice spoke frostily. Headmaster Grimm stepped into view.

Snow White startled when the White Rabbit and March Hare opened the attic door latch just long enough to throw three rounded objects into the office below before quickly shutting it milliseconds before something exploded beneath them.

"Glitter bombs." March Hare snickered over the muffled volume of several dozen dwarves' pained screams. "Good luck scraping that junk outta yer' nose holes and eyeballs anytime soon."

"End of the line, end of the rope, end of the road. Hickory dickory dock, time to stop the clock." The Senior Mad Hatter calmly walked out of the shadows while a portal to Wonderland smoothly opened behind him.

Almost deftly Snow White could feel something in the back of her skull snap.

"My, sneaky little things aren't you." The woman spat dangerously, grip tightening on her staff, bright blue eye being obscured by the wispy inky darkness of forbidden magic.

Ms. Cheshire clamped a hand over the shriek that almost left Blondie's lips when the staff grew skeletal wings and a sharp spearhead made up of green light and inky vapor. Her pristine white dress corroding slightly at the edges, corrupting bit by bit into an aged yellowing grey as the inky shadow vapors danced, weaving into her hair, paling her skin almost impossibly further...

Almost like a creature out of a nightmare, Snow White picked her target and lunged.


	24. Chapter 24

"What in the dimensions is going on over there?" The witch grumbled gingerly stalking closer to the larger shadowed clumps slowly inching its way back and out of sight from the mirror that Snow White was still gibbering into, unfortunately, especially since both she and Apple were forced to slow way-the-frick down due to the fact that the witch had to keep re-casting the sound-proofing circle as they walked because Apple immediately grew tense and fearful at hearing her mother's rambling screeching.

"Oh, it's just Giles trying to shoo a gaggle of your little friends away." The witch sighed in relief when they finally, finally got close enough to see through the dim light. "Do you want to say hello? They're probably here for you after all."

"But what about you?" An invisible form leaned supportively against the witch's hip. "You just can't wander around in here all by yourself after all the horrible things my mother said to you! That would be just too depressing! And besides… what if my mother tries to banish herself here in order to get to you?"

The thought hadn't exactly crossed the witch's mind, though a cold chill cascaded down her spine, now that it was mentioned…

"…I'll… ask Giles what he thinks. He's usually pretty levelheaded. And… having someone else, be the designated adult right now sounds… really rather nice actually. I just hope that I don't give them too much of a scare."

"If they didn't protest you being around when my mother said it was okay, they won't when I say it's okay." Apple sighed, unusually bitter. "It's part of the whole "fairest" thing, only Raven has ever really had the courage to outright question it."

The witch opened her mouth to voice her skepticism but never really had the chance.

To say that the witch nearly startled out of her skin when Giles caught sight of her and immediately ran forwards to sweep her up into a bone-crushing hug was a bit of an understatement. Though the woman was faintly aware of being proud of herself in just stopping short of flaring up at the unexpected tactile contact. Having Apple cling to her for the past while must have built up her tolerance considerably.

My, my-… this bear hug was almost as awkward as her little chat with Snowy.

Thankfully Giles seemed to have remembered her teenaged years of confusingly attempting to navigate why people tried to be so tactile with her from time to time (high fives, hugs, claps on the back or arm, holding her hand, offering her an arm to take, etc. etc. …), and stepped back just as quickly as he had swooped her up.

"I think I've found the one you're looking for, that is if you were searching for little Appleseed." Clawstorm stated bluntly, avoiding eye contact more than usual, for a lack of anything better to do. She could sense the circumference of her silence spell expanding to accommodate the other children as well. "She's invisible right now, we decided that it was for the best just in case her mother tried to banish herself or her minions in here just to drag me out. A necessity you see because this magic circle I've cast around us spares the… well it keeps the ranting out. But at the same time it takes away our ability to actually hear anything if-"

Apple yelped when Briar reached out to the spot that the witch had indicated. "Princess Apple White of the kingdom realm of-"

"Woah, woah, hey Briar, I had to do it-"

"-the ancient and noble kingdom of Ever After-"

"Well I mean, I didn't _have_ to do it, but if didn't try to protect her from-"

"-charged and birthed for the divine responsibility of serving her people-"

"Them too, and for Raven, my mother isn't fit to rule-"

"-descendant of the honored Ancestor fair maiden Snow White-"

"Whose name will now not hold the same meaning that it used to-"

"-heir apparent to the throne and the fairytale-"

"That's still up for debate."

"-bearer of the charm over animals, and the flame of populace opinions-"

"Ooh! You're really mad aren't you!"

"-child of an army of Charming generations-"

"Wow, references to inbreeding too! I've never made you this mad before!"

"-and a thousand pardons upon your feral thirst to bite innocent bystanders and steal their sandwiches-"

"I'm kind of impressed with myself for being able to get you to this level of madness actually." The invisible blonde whistled lowly.

"-Apple!" Brriar snapped. "This is not the appropriate time for you to be so- so… gleeful! What is wrong with you? And clam the invisible act already before I really loose it on you!"

"Look Briar I know that you're furious that I went in here considering my past experience with Raven's mom." Apple sighed, tapping the side of her headband and turning visible. "But now that she doesn't have to worry about keeping up the act to protect her family from my mom, she's been nothing super nice and reasonable! She even cast this silence spell around herself and I when she left my mother and had spotted me so that I would be protected from how… my mom's acting right now…" Apple fidgets with the witch's skirt, glumly looking down. "Mom should be winding down right about now, hopefully she'll just… leave? You know when she realizes that this has all been a waste of time?"

"Waste of- _leave_? Apple! Did you not hear what your mother just said about her plans to make her fairest again?" Briar hissed in disbelief.

"Uhh." Apple pointed confusingly to the magic sigils at their feet. "No? Raven's mom cast the silence spell not long after she stopped talking to my mom and found me."

"Snowball sounded… upset when I simply… laid out the facts to her. A daughter should not have to hear her mother act in such a… in that specific way, that's how I see it at least." The witch mumbled in thought, firm in her belief yet wondering if she had somehow missed some sort of social cue again. "How… just how much did the lot of you overhear?" The woman asked tentatively.

"Everything- _ow_!" Faybelle piped up only for Ashlynn to pinch her side for her troubles.

The witch seemed to deflate slightly more in mortification.

A heavy silence descended down on the group.

"So… she doesn't know about- _ow_!" Faybelle yelped when Cupid stamped on her foot. Hard. "Sorry…" The fairy mumbled uncharacteristically, remembering where she was.

Apple looked around suspiciously. "What? What's happened? What has my mother said since Raven's mom has-?"

"She's trying to frame my homeland's queen for-… she's gotten herself deep into some pretty heavy duty forbidden magic as far as I can tell." Hunter coughed uncertain on how to even begin with this-… all of this! "Like not just the evil villain kind but the… melt-your-own-face-off-if-mishandled-it's-so-dangerous kind. And she's-… she's admitted to hurting some people with the intention of framing her dark ladyship… Apple you- your-… Snow White said that people in your palace were-… harmed." The boy winced.

Ashlynn grabbed his hand. "Your father being one of them, if her words are to be believed." The girl finished for him.

"Whu- what?" Apple stood there in horrified disbelief. "I-I don't understand! I-Is everybody- is my daddy all right though? Why would he- or any of them go along with this plan? I mean I know that they are all loyal to mom but isn't this going a bit far to get hurt and then say that it was Raven's mom's fault, I-?"

"Apple!" Briar cut in remorsefully, voice raw with emotion. "They didn't go along with anything. They did not harm themselves, nor did they consent to being… harmed, most likely they never even saw… your- Snow White coming. Until it was too late that is."

Apple blinked, shook her head, and blinked again. "But then… why does my mother think that she can convince people that someone else hurt them? I mean even loyalty will go so far in this case-"

"Apple sweetie, they are unable to tell anyone who hurt them." Ashlynn cut in, voice wavering slightly with the force it was taking to keep calm.

Apple blinked, still not willing to comprehend.

"Well it'll get out eventually, when they heal and get better-"

"Apple!" Briar squeezed her eyes shut. "They- your father is not going to get better. Not-… he's never going to get better. It's-… it's too late for him Apple." The girl faced the blonde, looking imploringly into Apple's wide blue eyes, silently begging her to understand. "He's long gone Apple. There is nothing we can, or could do to save him. He got too close to figuring out what your mother was planning… and he paid the-… final price."

"Oh." Apple stood there, ice freezing her veins, too shocked to more than lean the whole side of her body against the witch's leg and hip when the woman grasped the girl's shoulders protectively, clinging to the folds of her robe's skirts as a frightened child would do.

"Is there no end to this nightmare?" The witch seethed, completely frightened herself now. "Everything that's thrown at her only seems to make things worse! Is there nothing that can stop her?"

"We know what's going on, so does Wonderland." Hunter pointed out helpfully.

"Yes but will that do any good?" The witch trembled. "People knew about her pointed slander and threats made to my family, and yet even when I lashed out or tried to ask for help people just… took her side! Regardless of the facts!"

"I am so sorry child." Giles sighed mournfully, taking the witch's hands in his own and begins to slowly tug her in one direction. "We should have done better to protect you, a useless declaration now I do realize… however at the very least we can protect you in the here and now. Come. We must go now while my brother distracts her. He'll be right behind us any moment, we'll go to the school and escape Snow White's forces through the forest and-"

The witch cried out as she felt a searing pain wrack her body from her magical core, forcing her to her hands and knees, the silence spell flickering in and out as she continued to howl in pain, spider-webs of poisonous green light erupting over her visible skin. _Ancestors_ it felt as though someone was stabbing her with a _hot iron_!

XXX

The sound of a woman's cries cutting in and out echoing in the dark distance forces the Headmaster to turn around.

"Cease your attack immediately!" The man barks savagely. "You're _hurting_ her!"

"I wouldn't have to if only she would just…" Snow White snarled, pausing to slash at the Wonderlandians who were trying to stop her while also keeping their distance from the unknown dark magic she was using. "You all will pay for your impudence! Especially her! How dare she ignore me! A villain should be incapable of ignoring her princess!"

Another swipe, another agonized scream.

The man began to sound even more desperate. "Dear sweet Ancestors woman! Stop! Can't you see the damage that you are doing? What you are becoming? This is not proper behavior at all for a maiden! Let alone a queen!"

"Shut up!" Snow White roared, stabbing at the magic shield protecting the mirror's surface and yanking back, almost as if she were attempting to pull an invisible thread towards herself.

Mere seconds later the Headmaster had no choice but to duck out of the way as a hollering ball of wispy purplish light collided violently with the side of the mirror's frame.

The ball of light keened in pain, the vaporous wisps of itself collecting together to form the figure of a woman laying prone on her side.

The man scrambled to the witch's side. "Are you alright?" He asked gently prodding, searching for any possible breaks in bone.

"Guh-! Hurts. Magic hurts so much. I don't think I-I can keep her out f'r long." The witch whined, the lack of resistance she shows to him cradling her shoulders up into a sitting position, coupled with the alarming glowing green flashes of _something_ _crawling_ under her skin, does little to comfort him from his growing alarm.

The witch glares at Snow White, who is still warding off the incoming Wonderlandians. "The hell have you been playing with?" She snaps in the best demoralizing scolding tone she can muster. "Forbidden magic my ass, something that toxic isn't something even the evilest of villains would touch! The fucking hell are you even thinking?"

"Language young lady." The Headmaster scolded out of habit.

"Sorry." The witch grumbles with a wince when she tries to move. "It just-… everything _hurts_ too much. What even is that stuff? I can feel it trying to eat away at my magic like it's some kind of acid! And she doesn't even have natural born magic! _How_ is she still _alive_ to even wield it?"

"The Death Mask's flame can only be wielded by those determined enough to do what needs to be done, and the curse of Morgana rests comfortably in the hearts of women scorned! Both states of being that you, as my villain, should have been in the first place all those years ago! But since you refuse to use real curses that only a proper villain should be using, I'm doing all the hard work instead, be grateful you spineless wench! I'm the one who is giving you back your reputation by cursing your illusions with proper spells!" Snow White snarled, keeping a close eye on how the March Hare was toying with another glitter-bomb (although harmless in low doses, finely ground glitter could do serious damage to the eyes and respiratory system, especially if they were using the kind that was made from glass), and she could have sworn she had just seen a Cheshire Cat two seconds ago...

"…Did she just admit to creating a curse that could possibly result in mass genocide?" The witch tried to look up at her former mentor, but was impeded by the man's massive hands covering the side of her face and holding her head close to his shoulder.

"Just keep calm and focused on keeping her out, as long as she stays in Ever After, she'll eventually slip her control for long enough that her own curse will infect her, and she will be rendered catatonic or… worse. If she gets loose in here however… the properties of this dimension will only hold her body in stasis. And who knows just how much damage she'll do if she is allowed in here with two open portals to the outside!" The man hissed in her ear.

"Brother, what happens if she gets to one of Clawstorm's illusions first? Even for a non-magic bearer, her curse just needs a seed of something to cling and grow onto." When had Giles gotten here? The witch wondered.

"I think I can call off my illusions from here." The witch whispered confidently, just under the range of Snow White's pained shouts as someone had bitten her. "But the problem is that the glass of the mirror is already broken, and that stuff is too toxic! It's draining my energy! This place already limits the true extent of my powers, and the only thing holding the whole thing in place is my magic, and don't thing even I can-!"

The witch breaks off into an agonized wail when Snow White renews her assault on the mirror, the green light from the invading magic actually managing to break skin in a few small places.

"We need to move her out of here! I can sense whatever that is trying to invade her body through her magic!" Someone shrieked, but the witch didn't know who said it, wasn't able to tell. She was too busy fighting against the dampening pull of the dimension's natural state along with attempting to feed more magic into her corroding shields.

For a few precious moments she feels two separate, but familiar, magical sources attempting to aide her but when Snow White holds her scepter up to the glass for an unusual long moment the two magical signatures retreat with a wild yowl, and a pained cry.

Suddenly the witch feels herself lose corporal form without her permission for a second time and is slammed into the barrio of glass and magic.

"Don't think you can fight this." She could hear Snowball hiss. "Not even you can fight against your true nature Clawstorm, soon whatever little pathetic resistance you've harbored against destiny will break and through bitterness and defeat my true villain will awaken! You'll never be able to ignore me ever again Clawstorm, I am your princess, I am your everything!"

Revolted the witch tried to pull back from the other, tried to ignore how the near constant pang in her broken heart has just twisted and amplified until the agony was near unbearable, and she was losing control the mirror was broken and oh gods! _sheisabouttogetcloseenoughtogetme-!_

"Mom stop!" Apple roared from somewhere in the ether of darkness and pain.

The assault stopped.

"Apple? What are you doing in there?"

The distraction was enough, Clawstorm taking her magic and the glass it was holding and throwing it forwards with as much force as she could muster, hurtling Snow White back, sailing through the air, through the portal to Wonderland, until she landed painfully on the unforgiving ground on the other side.

With an inaudible twang that was felt, despite its impossibility, like a string of red twine being wrapped tightly around her heart, squeezing painfully and pulling her forwards towards the last person she ever wanted to get close to ever again…

XXX

Blondie shrieked as glass splinters and the body of Snow White flew past herself and her newly self-appointed escort while the two of them had been in the middle of quietly attempting to sneak away from the attic.

"Owww…" Blondie glanced frightfully behind herself at the sound of a pained keening noise; Raven's mother lay uncomfortably between this dimension and the other one, the former mirror's frame obviously digging in painfully into her mid-section. Apple rushing in from behind, attempting to simultaneously pull the witch up while also hugging the stuffing out of said woman as she did so.

"Why is her skin still cracking with the green stuff?" The princess demanded hoarsely, shouldering the struggling woman upright. And indeed when Blondie took a closer look the witch's skin looked infected with broken veins of something poisonously glowing green with other areas already darkening red as if the woman's body were battling an infection.

Blondie also noticed that Raven's mother was clutching her chest and struggling to gasp for air.

"My heart! M-my heart! S-sh-sh-she's d-done s-s-s-ometh-th-ing t-to me! GuH! It HURTS!" Raven's mother sobbed through gasping breaths.

"A heart attack?" Darling piped up in concern.

A weathered hand emerged from the dark Mirror realm and urgently pulled back the pale witch's hood. Clasping her forehead as he did so.

Snow White snarled, Blondie barely registered Cheshire Cat yanking her out of the way as the queen of Ever After jumped up to address the charging horde of Wonderlandian forces descending down upon her from the rolling hills.

The air seemed to grow soupy and static could be felt uncomfortably dancing upon Blondie's skin as the queen held up her nightmarish golden scepter and charged it up with magic.

"She's burning up." Giles could barely be heard over the ensuing battle.

"It's not a heart attack!" Blondie numbly recognized Cupid's voice, she tried to turn but Kitty's mother held her still while they leaped about the air, dodging waves of bad magic that seared Blondie's hair if it got too close. The girl could do nothing but clutch onto her still recording mirror-pad, not even scream. There was no time to!

The world momentarily paused- well, no, actually it didn't but it certainly felt like it did, just a teeny, tiny bit, when an ethereal red thread appeared in the blonde's line of sight, almost invisible by itself in contrast to the battlefield, but brought almost instantly to one's attention by the odd dark greasy looking… inky… stuff that floated weightless around and through the very nature of the thread.

Mostly Blondie had been able to notice it because it seemed to be connected to the queen of Ever After and when it pulled tight the woman's back arched unnaturally as if her body wanted to follow, but parts of her were still rooted down to that one spot.

"W-what is-?" The girl somehow manages eek out when they are far enough away to stop hopping about for more than two seconds, the queen can be seen swiping furiously at the string connecting to something through her skin and inside her chest, while also swinging at the attacking forces with her scepter and its corrupted magic.

Kind clawed hands insistently turned Blondie around and kept the girl's gaze away from the scene of battle. "It's her True Love bond with young King Raven's mother." The Cheshire woman explained, hair standing on end, face betraying the instinctual shock at witnessing the first few soldiers being cut down by a swinging wave of power.

Thankfully Blondie's open-mouthed shock, and lack of visuals seemed to have spared her most of the horror behind her.

XXX

"A True Love _what_?" Darling and Faybelle were the first to speak.

"Are you certain?" Giles asked Cupid at the same time his brother blustery demanded if it was true from the twitching witch he was helping to hold upright.

"Very." Cupid deadpanned, giving the string an especially vicious tug, hissing under her breath at the toxic magic's acidic sting, though the resulting surprised yeowl from the offending human queen made the reddening welts worth the trouble. "She's unintentionally siphoning off magic output from this one's inborn powers, we need to find a way to either sever the connection or… no, we need to sever this before the damage from both this… whatever kind of magic this is- and this unhealthy relationship rips their hearts apart! …Quite literally if it keeps up like this."

Ashlynn looks up from her attempt to apply an ice pack (where she got it must have come from somewhere in the impossible depths of one of the present princess's purses) to the witch's feverish head. "Literally? As in-?"

"She may get lucky, and bleed out within moments… or it will be a slow, painful way to go." Cupid gave her prognosis grimly. "And that's only if this… _toxic magic_ doesn't get to her first! I've never even heard of a denied True Love bond going this badly astray personally! Unrequited sure, but never…" The girl makes a face. "Never turning out to be _this unhealthy_!"

The Headmaster turned to the young woman in surprise. "You were the one who woke your assigned maiden up?"

"It was… my and Charming's little secret. Our agreement. He couldn't… wake her up." The witch coughed violently, gulping in air, which was feeling very thin at the moment. That or she was having trouble getting air through her constricting throat, either one was possible. "Surprised the hell outta me. I was so scared that I had messed up. So I had vowed to find a cure, and… while Charming was sulking a bit always… I had kissed her goodbye. And she began t-to- stir…"

Even the sounds of battle, the rattling of the trap door caused by the angry fists of furious dwarves, and yet another coughing fit, did not seem to be enough for those around the witch to bring themselves to tear their- wide-eyed, gaping mouthed- shocked gaze away from the woman.

"I booked it before she was awake enough to see that it was me who cured her. …She never questioned why Charming had been so far away when her eyes popped open." The witch kuffed, and gasped for a scary moment, body convulsing in pain, before settling down. Not even having it in her to snarl at the Headmaster as he moved to hold her more securely, like a parent would to an overgrown child.

"And Charming was too… well I don't know what he was really, didn't say a word about it though. Met up in secret just the once. …He had been worried that I might say something; prove that he wasn't her true intended. Being beat out for the king of Ever-… After… bad enough if it was another prince, but a female villain? Incredibly humiliating for a Charming! I laughed in his face when he begged me not to take his ticket to a life of fame and riches away. …He was a kind man, don't get me wrong Apple-cheeks, but he had come from a small, not-so-very-influential kingdom… trained and worked his entire life to get a princess of high enough standing… so that he could leave behind a legacy people would care to remember him by. He was… terri-ahck! …Terrified of being just… another forgotten fairytale prince."

"And he thought he had hit gold when my mother set her eyes on him." Apple murmured bitterly, voice drowning in grief as she sought comfort by half curling up against the older woman. "He was the best Charming Prince in school, and mom could have nothing but the best for her story."

The woman, to everyone's surprise, wrapped her arm around the princess and held her protectively close! …Almost as if the two had been doing this kind of thing for a long time…

"I ordered him to cease his begging, and sobbing at my feet." The witch worked to heave in breath through the pain, her ached and skin itched as if it was suffering from an allergy… a very bad allergy. "She had chosen him. I still… loved her back then, so I was content not to rock the boat. Let her live her happily ever after… without me. While Charming was… Charming was left to leave behind his greatest legacy; a little girl with his hair and skin… and his kind heart."

Apple was pretty certain that her father had wanted to do more than just help create her, but the kind sentiment was comforting enough at that moment as the girl buried her face into the witch's side and sobbed silently.

"Apple…" Ashlynn rubbed said girl's back.

The witch took note of a particularly loud explosion and struggled back into focus.

"I need to draw in more breath." She gasped and coughed. "Or for the pain t-to be-come more bearable. If I can do that for long enough… I can disassemble the illusions. Maybe even stop her."

"I may be a likle bit assistance to that!" The senior Mad Hatter popped up, a little singed, and smoking slightly at the edges, but otherwise perfectly fine.

XXX

Most in the impromptu-assembled group startled when Goldie Locks swore, breathing out the coarse words passionately for nearly a full minute.

Not that anyone could blame her, given where her daughter was at that particular moment…

"And that concludes the latest report from the front." The Mother Queen of Hearts snapped her fingers, an aide swiftly taking the missive away. "Just a heads up to what we might face over there. Once we evacuate the children and staff off to safety we must continue forth and take out her dwarf forces from behind, less the people we are trying to save get caught in the middle."

"Please be careful." The Good King nodded to the others as they finished securing their weapons (the Wonderlandians opened an emergency portal into the Heart Castle, andthey had all marched smartly on over to the royal armory). "I'm not certain of exactly what type of forbidden magic we are currently dealing with, but if it's potent enough to give my wife, the Clawstorm Queen, troubles, then-"

"It's a kind of bad mojo that's on a colossal scale." Red Riding Hood nodded grimly. "Don't let it touch us, and try not to breathe near it. We got it your majesty. We'll see about evacuating those kids back here safely, as well as saving Clawstorm's life."

"Thank you." The man sighed. "I am in all of your debt."

"Don't thank us until we've all come back alive and with Ever After's queen in irons." The Queen Mother of Hearts called over her shoulder, opening a new portal to Ever After, from the large, mountain troll sized, mirror in the wall. "You should go on over and find our daughters to update them on the turn of events in our absence."

The man bowed politely, holding baby Binx securely in his arms. "Of course your majesty, but still, all of you, good luck, and stay safe!"

XXX

There was definitely something wrong with Snow White's guards. Daring held Rosabella close to his side as the two cautiously peered around the corner, the main roads off of campus were crawling with guards, and the foreboding rhythmic marching that could be heard somewhere in the forest didn't sound too promising of an escape either (more than scary enough to frighten away most animals, probably including the infamous she-beast thing that had been stealing lunchboxes and Hunter's food a while back…). The village was a no-go, too many chances that they'd come face to face with civilians.

She may not be the most popular person right now, however, as Rosabella kindly pointed out, there were many who were still patriotic of Ever After to the point of siding with Snow White no matter what, and many more still who would raise the alarm in an attempt to help the student… only to perhaps alert the country's military and that… that could only end badly. Very badly.

But they still had to find a way to escape!

"They look… dead." Rosabella softly whispered in his ear. "Or… undead? I'm not even sure what classification they would be under right now…"

The royal dwarf guard did look pretty creepy right now; all dried sunken skin, burnt out eye sockets (on the ones who weren't wearing sunglasses at least) with a hazy green smoke coming out of them, singed beards, pointy hats and suits that looked like the fabric had aged about two hundred years, oily inky vapor that flowed around them, killing plant life and leaving inky footprints behind, and an odd hissing insect-like clicking sound that rattled about every so often.

"I don't think that you should be seeing this." Daring shuttered.

"Well I don't think that you should have to see this either but we've got no choice since we have to get us and the others out of here. And soon!" Rosabella whispered back. "I don't like the way we can hear all that ruckus coming from the main building… sounds like people fighting. A lot of people fighting."

"We do." Daring nodded. "But how are we supposed-?"

The boy was interrupted by two heavily armed hooded women, a throng of bears, and three wolves charging forth and knocking the visible guards down. A dull battle cry erupted soon after from the sudden surge of parents and guards hailing from all sorts of kingdoms charging forth.

A blur, a slight pick-up in wind and from one moment, where the two teen's had been gaping at the front gate, to the next, where they were gaping at two sleek young she-wolves in their fully transformed glory.

"Quick you two, lead us to the others! Out parents won't be able to keep a path open, and save the school at the same time! We're already more than ready to evacuate everybody, we just need the people!" Spoke one, eerily familiar sounding, she-wolf.

Daring choked on air.

"Cerise?" Rosabella blinked, a little cross-eyed when said girl experimentally poked the princess's side with her fuzzy snout in an attempt to get somebody, anybody, to start moving.


	25. Chapter 25

"Papa?" Raven abandoned her post beside Lizzie's throne and ran forward, bewilderment and concern etched into her young face at the sight of a growling baby in her father's arms, as well as Ginger and the Crumb cousins following dutifully behind their king.

"Please pardon inviting myself and my kingdom's kin here without proper invitation my darling girl. Your highness Queen of Hearts. But I have come with some urgent news of Ever After and both of you- all of you must be informed of it." The Good King spoke clearly but kindly to the room full of Wonderland characters, nodding his head respectfully to Lizzie.

"Your intrusion is forgiven." Lizzie waved away formality impatiently. "Please proceed immediately."

The man looked over to his daughter, this was not going to be easy for someone like her, for in many ways she was just like her mother before her a witch-monarch with strength and loyalty to not just family and state, but also to an ancestral line of human princesses. Raven's loyalties to her princess, even when a fairytale would no longer connect their family lines, was seemingly boundless… as well as potentially dangerous, given how badly things had ended over a year prior. The loyalty, and duty, and even love was still strong in his daughter's attitude towards Apple White, the trust however…

Friendship could be a fragile thing if taken for granted or mishandled. If it were up to him he'd have ensured that events from the past would have never gotten this far.

Regardless he was keenly aware that he held no rights over his wife's need to find her own way of escaping the cursed cycling grip of her fairytale, nor did he have any say over his daughter's legendary will, and her desire to keep one princess safe and happy for the rest of the girl's life.

And so the Good King inhaled. "It is about your mother, Snow White, and little Apple my darling girl. They are all in danger of some quite gruesomely horrible fate I'm afraid."

XXX

This was unforgivable!

Intolerable!

Unprecedented!

Inexcusable!

How _dare_ they?

She was the fair one! The only pure being to have bothered gracing this wretched ungrateful place! They did not have the right to question her! They held no ground to stand in her way! They could not say that she should have to submit to their will! No one should!

Well… perhaps _she_ could do all of those things. But _she_ was her villain, _she_ was _special_! Born specifically for her. Every story maiden needed a villain, it was the only way to have a happily ever after!

 _But you never got your happily ever after, now did you?_ A traitorous voice taunted disdainfully in the back of her mind.

Everything had gone to plan, everything had been perfect. She had been saved from poison, had gotten a prince of reasonable breeding stock and training, had become queen…

But the perfectness of the fairytale had not lingered.

There had been one person, the only person in the entire world capable of maintaining fairytale perfection, of keeping everything in motion and perfect in a constant story loop. It had taken work and a great deal of sacrifice to drag the Evil Queen back into the story, but she had done it, and it had worked…

…until it hadn't.

She was Snow White, the pure princess of Ever After…

Except she wasn't a princess anymore now, wasn't that right?

XXX

The witch had been unaware that the Heart clan had several centuries worth of successful study into the True Love phenomenon. Though in hindsight it probably shouldn't be much of a surprise. Despite other dimension's inability to properly study the occurrence in it's true form under proper conditions, Wonderland has always been… the sort of place where conventional magic and its limits were forced to bow down, as it were.

It was embarrassing really. How grateful she was right now to the same clan she once sought to overthrow, for as a reward for her cooperation in bringing down Snowball they had been planning on forever shielding her heart against the connection it held to the other queen's. Thus granting her a true break from her True Love bond, or at least as best of a new start as she could get without a literal heart transplant, or death.

It wasn't the best of places for this; not with the floor rattling with the sound of tiny, insistent fists, the battle going on not too far away, barely being able to breath let alone move was forcing her to need to be literally carried (like a child no less! It had been ages since she had ever wanted anything to do with the Grimm Brothers, and while this was still not as bad as being imprisoned by them, it was still not her choice to be babied like she was fifteen all over again!) by the two people in the world she'd just rather pretend never existed, the searing electric shocks under her skin that left trails that burned her…

But it would all be worth it just to finally, finally get a moment's peace from Snowball. She'd do anything at this point to be free of the other once and for all! Hex! She'd sell her own kidneys in exchange for a few measly moments of restful clarity at this point!

She could feel Snowball's heart beat in tandem to her own, could sense her presence, could feel her soul intertwined with her magical core. She always could. Even when she was with Raphael, imprisoned in the mirrors… it just… it just had never hurt this much before!

But then again the witch had always been good at hiding their bond from the other, and Snowball being a theoretically pure-bred human (she still wasn't ruling out an abominable-something-or-other being snuck in somewhere in that family tree) did not have the magic to sense out the bond herself, to realize that with just a little bit of reaching that she held the ability to wield the witch's magic as if it were her own.

At least not until now that was… Snowball couldn't use her magic until now. When she had gotten desperate enough to be stupid and summon up the type of magic that was actually designed to eat away at other types of magic and living things like an acid, or some other highly dangerous caustic substance. From the feel of it the witch was guessing that this kind of stuff would normally have been used in the bad old days to efficiently kill off plagues and those infected by them, leaving nothing but dead sanitized things…

But that used to be a duty tasked by plague doctors who would religiously sacrifice their own health at the mercy of their own magic.

This… who knew what different kinds of magicks Snowball mixed in with this, and then there was the True Love factor to put in there to boot! Whatever magic Snowball had originally intended… it was changed now. Mutated beyond recognition.

And if it wasn't stopped soon it could very well end up killing them both.

She at least still had enough clarity of mind to voice her observations. By then the battle had drifted farther away (thanks to some clever Wonderlandian battle techniques no doubt), and somebody had secured the floor and attic door to slow Snowball's minions at least somewhat, so it became easier for the others to hear her over all the noise.

"Blood to blood, heart to heart." Apple quoted like the diligent child she was. "She's got your heart, so that means she has your blood rights to your magic as well."

"It does make sense that your magic isn't holding up well." Giles exchanged a look with his brother. "She did say that she had mixed Morgana's original curse with that old plague doctor cure for illnesses. The two combined-"

"-Is very toxic, even for the wielder." The headmaster finished gravely.

"Yes but which kind of-" The woman gasped, coughed, the feeling of thick hot iron needles digging into her lungs.

"What kind of Plague Flame?" The Headmaster asked gently, rubbing her shoulder paternally.

At the woman's nod he sighed, turning towards the confused glances from the children helping to set down the intricate magic circle with chalk. "She's concerned about the specific type of magic used since every mastered plague doctor had their own special modification of the original spell. Depending on the spell's casting will affect her differently."

"And that sort of unknown is very concerning." Giles finished. "Especially if it has been irresponsibly mutated by an outside curse."

"Well… it could be w-worse." The witch grit her teeth and tried to breathe through another wave of pain. "S-she could b-be usin' that stuff, t' it's full… potential!" She let out the last word as a soft cry, clutching her chest.

"Full potential?" Hunter gaped. "It looks pretty terrifying enough as it is! Even _I_ can sense that stuff, and _I_ don't have magic!"

"T-trust me kiddo." There was a disturbing bubbling noise as the witch breathed out. "With this kind of magic… it-t has the pa- _kuf_ f! Potential t-to get w-way worse. It-t may be app-eased by- _ahguhk!_ By what-t it-t ate at-t the cas-tle… but not-t f'r long. Needs more… sac-ri-fice-s. Needs life t' k'p burnin'. Else it-t burns its'lf out-t-t…"

"Stop talking." The Headmaster orders gently. "You need to reserve all of your strength.

The man's heart sunk when the woman obeyed without even a token scowl.

XXX

"That was mom. Cerise and Ramona will be leading students and staff from school to your father's estate in the country, your mother's ancestral palace, and the palace in your nation's capital, via the new train line that was going to be opened next week. She's already called the staff to get ready for a really big emergency influx of refugee teens and school staff." Lizzie informed beckoning the pacing witch over to her throne, taking both the witch's hands in her own.

Taking calming breaths Raven knelt down on one knee and rested her head on top of the other's clasped hands. "I should go and help my father call parents, meet the others at the train platform, something regal and responsible…"

"Give yourself a moment. Just a moment. Breathe so that you can stand up and do what you need to do and not fall apart with worry." Lizzie advised, trying not to think about how much she actually enjoys having someone bow to her in such an _interesting_ manner. Now was not the time for cursed hormones! Or for her conquering breeding to kick in.

It didn't help that Raven was really good at this whole loyalty business, if there was a sure way to get into the heart of a Queen of Hearts it was loyalty, and an agreeable personality, added by good looks. Which Raven was all three. It was very tempting to just steal all that Raven could potentially be offering away for herself. Lizzie was torn between doing the right thing and letting Raven's heart figure itself out, thus leaving Lizzie free from getting tangled into any messy feelings or situations…

…Or… well there was the side of Lizzie who had always been taught about past queens, the ones she was told that she must try to emulate to her best abilities, who just up and decided to have absolutely no mercy upon those who betrayed the safety of Wonderland. If there would ever be a better revenge against Apple (who she was still a little mad at), stealing away both Raven's loyalty and her heart would be the best course to take. With the right words, the right gestures… the right sort of subtle reminder… Lizzie knew that at this moment, she had the power to break this connection Raven still felt towards Apple and cut off their strong bond of friendship for good.

And that was why Lizzie was not going to tread a single romantic toe in Raven's direction. Such a cruel act was not necessary here, and Raven was far from stupid. Why break the girl's heart a second time all because Lizzie was merely curious about whether a romantic entanglement between herself and the witch would work?

This was one story that did not need one of those sorry, tired little love triangles! Over half the time those things were pretty incomplete anyways! To have a complete and true love triangle here Apple would have to have romantic inclinations with Lizzie, to pair with Lizzie's romantic musings towards Raven, to match with Raven's stricken love for Apple! And under those circumstances it wouldn't have been an issue anyways because then Lizzie could have just added Apple to the royal harem and taken over Ever After as a result, married Raven and-

Okay. No. Wait. Lizzie was not going to go there. Too weird. And way too risky trying to overtake so many realms at once! Plus… well it would be rude wouldn't it? To take advantage of the situation to the point where Lizzie ran the risk of overstepping? After all the people of Ever After have had more than enough to deal with without Lizzie coming in and passive-aggressively trying to take the place over. To conquer it as if it was all just a game and not a large chunk of land populated by real life people.

It would be wrong, and it would be going way out of line… but Lizzie could see how tempting the idea to try was. Could see a less… tactful (or smart because trying to rule over a revolting population was just stupid) ruler actually going in and doing all of that; marrying the available royalty and taking over, first by law, then by politics, then by force.

This was why fairytales were important to have around. It kept the monarchy where they belonged: out of the business of making their people miserable.

Well at least it had been that way… until Snow White, the manipulative bitch, wrecked the system that had been working so well for so long.

Raven had been right to rebel, had essentially saved them all from catastrophe and war…

But it was up to both her and Lizzie now to re-outline and reinstate the traditions that worked, scrap the ones that didn't, and redefine what a fairytale was in order to keep the peace. So that when one realm fell on unsteady legs the others would be there to help, not take advantage and seize… just like it had been done in the bad old days.

It wouldn't be easy, and there would be a lot of grumbling from certain parties, but for the sake of the future peace it had to be done, and be done right this time! Give the characters more freedom to be themselves, and to love whom they wanted, yet also keeping the duties and honors that came with being born or adopted into their family's bloodlines.

It was the only way as far as Lizzie could see thus far. Nobody had as of yet to come up with a decent alternative plan!

Besides Raven needed her _queen_ right now and they both had bigger eggs to fry.

"I'll stand beside you." Lizzie decided. "This is our joint realm now, and we shall rule it together as friends and as a united force!"

XXX

She shuttered as the magic circle powered up, inhaling greedily within seconds, suddenly the pain ebbing away, granting her the power to breathe again.

The spell was indeed working stemming the flow of power being leeched out of her while also shielding her heart from the bond that she and the other shared. Something that she had been able to ignore for a good chunk of the past few years, and yet with this, the absence of actually feeling the power of someone else's mind, body, and soul inside her heart was utterly palpable.

It was liberating.

And she wanted to keep it that way.

On her next breath the witch began reciting, her magic erasing the magical code of the illusions that had gotten her into so much trouble in the past, and she breathed, and breathed some more, words forming like a cold fog of fresh air on each exhale, words of power, words of pleading hope, because it would not be enough to just take away the illusions and set back the other's plans a mere few paces.

No. she had to do this right, she had to reach inside the other and clip the emerging poisonous spiny wings of independent sorcery, she had to bind away the other's ability to use magic, in any capacity, she had to snuff out the flames of the toxic spell, she had to assuage the remanence of Morgana's broken and betrayed heart which still howled and screamed even centuries later in every artifact and spell she had ever touched.

The witch had to do it all now, else it very well may never be done at all. And if it was never done right, or soon then they were all screwed. All. Of. Them. Even Snowball would eventually get burned up to a crisp by her own overzealous actions, but whether they'd all be lucky enough for her to just perish when that did happen was still less than a fifty percent chance. Could turn out that whomever survived the initial tantrum tirade long enough to see Snowball get chard up would probably have to be dealing with some form of mutated category undead version of a really pissed off Snowball.

And if Snowball was a nightmare to deal with when she had a bad hair day or gods forbid, a tiny blemish on her "fair skin", then a Snowball with half-to-all of her face melted off would be… actually, there probably isn't a word that could quite encompass just how nightmarish that could get. She knew that even at this point old Snowball was far from getting to her worst point, as difficult as it was to imagine, the other woman, as the witch knew, in her hearts of hearts where they were both linked, was capable of getting way worse if given the opportunity.

Which was why she had to stop Snowball now, even if it ended up killing the both of them.

Wind howled and whipped about, the planks of flooring beneath her palms trembled, the very air itself vibrated with her magic, with her will. This was going to take a lot of energy, energy she wasn't even completely certain she'd have enough to spare after having her insides exposed to the toxin the other was using and because they were connected there was a good chance that this was going to hurt. Considerably. The both of them were going to be feeling this for weeks afterwards if they both managed to survive. One of the many, _many_ downsides to being linked in this way to Snowball the freaking crazy queen; she didn't make anything _not_ painful at the end of the day.

That, the witch had come to realize, was the curse of being stuck in this sort of unhealthy relationship. Unless you cut every tie, burned every bridge, and started running, running so fast and so far until you could not run any further and you collapse in some faraway place, on unfamiliar ground, and it's scary, so, so scary, but you have to make do and move on. There is no choice! Because if you look back for even a moment the person you are linked to, the one that you are trying to get away from, will get you then, they will find you, destroy all that you have built on your own, and lock you up in a mirror in an old attic and never let you out.

Well she had learned her lesson from the last time! This time… this time was going to be different! Somehow, …somehow this cycle was going to change!

Maybe? Hopefully? She wasn't alone anymore… she wasn't having to bear everything by herself this time. There were family and other people who appeared to want to separate Snowball from her life so… maybe it could work out this time! She could be free! Or- well as free as she could be while still being connected by some level of True Love to the other…

It had to be. For everyone's sake. Especially hers.

Suddenly there was lots of shouting, more than there had been a moment ago. A yowling string of rather filthy swear words, along with a near vomit-inducing, tugged and pulled at the bond that was wrapped around and impaled in her heart, violently. So violently and so persistently that the witch lurched and gripped the ground in an effort not to expel bile from her already empty stomach, as Snowball drew power directly from the center of her core with a sickly burning slide type of feeling, making the witch's skin feel clammy and leaving behind the feeling of something akin to cold little microscopic electric eels… or worms, slithering under her skin, swimming along her arteries. It was… slimy. In an acidic sort of way, like a slick cord dipped in a viscous chemical that caused the skin and bone to sting and burn as it slides forwards.

The term heartburn felt a trifle bit too accurate at the moment.

On instinct she looked up, to see what new fresh hell Snowball was trying to use her for this time and-

Oh.

There wasn't time for much thought, or for even a split second to think much about the consequences of what she was going to have to do next. Just a brief impression that she might not be able to get out of this alive, but that was drowned out by the sudden realization that Snowball had gotten desperate again, and was now seeking for ways to replace the sudden loss of magic used to control her little toxin. Oh yes, even for an experienced magic user, controlling that nasty concoction using their own powers and will would have been very trying and difficult.

Snowball, without natural-born magic, and with her source of stolen magic restricted to a trickle of energy, would not stand a chance on her own, no matter how strong her need to enforce her will over everyone and everything truly was.

She'd either have to surrender or perish if left to her own devices.

But of course neither option was acceptable to her, Snowball hated losing, no matter what the consequences were.

Which certainly explained why she had completely ignored the Cheshire woman, and had instead set her sights on the young girl instead.

The old texts describing forbidden magicks always indicated favor towards youth sacrifices. An unnecessary tactic since any age of sacrifice was sufficient, and wholly unnecessary now with modern advancements and the use of symbolic sacrifices that worked just as well, if not better, if only for the lack of having to clean alters of blood and viscera after every single ceremony.

But Snowball wouldn't know that. Not with the choice of weapon she had summoned; the toxic flames ate away at life forces and needed the souls of the living to continue burning. Issue was that it often left behind the smoke of the rage and despair of its feasts, it burned too hot too quick and it would resort to consuming the caster too if it was used improperly and left without sufficient fuel.

Even the people who had created the blasted spell thought it was overkill for dealing with at least ninety percent of extreme crisis. And that was saying something considering the fact that, at the time, they had been dealing with the type of crisis that involved plagues where the skin of the infected would be melting off the bone, or an infestation of fungus that grew on the sufferer while using their insides as fertilizer. The flames had taken out such illnesses t efficiently, some to the point of extinction.

But that was still when the spell had been used properly. And right now; it was definitely not being used the way it was designed.

Such a nuance was obviously overlooked by Snowball however, the witch concluded as her form gave up solidity in preparation to act, the other was fighting off another wave of guards, the girl (why did she look so familiar?) was doing her utmost to book it out of there, but in the confusion the witch knew that without intervention, the girl would be the next to feed the flames in Snowball's quest to win at all cost.

All the other woman had cared about was finding the most powerful, the most impressive, the most perfect everything, anything that she could acquire or force to serve her without question (lest those who rebel face her tantrums). No matter what, the tale of Snow White had to be upheld.

It was almost like a disability in of itself actually; the need for everything to be perfect lest the illusion of a dead woman living on in her descendant be shattered.

And it was sad because perhaps if the witch were better mentally equipped she could have helped her once lover, could have solved the riddle as to why Snowball was so… insane about needing everything to be perfect. Her fears of failure turning her into the monstrous villain and her ambition growing to the point to where the fairytale magic had reversed itself for Ancestor's sake!

And while the witch did hate Snowball right now, wanted nothing more than to be separated from the other's bond and influence upon her heart and life…

…That still did not mean that the witch did not still love the other in a small kind of way. It was wrong, it wasn't right, and it would never be, but that was the crux of True Love; whether it worked out to a happy ending, or a tragic one, love still lived relentlessly on, even when it should have move on long ago.

And it was because Clawstorm still harbored that love for Snowball, that she was going to stop her from murdering that child. Even if it meant the both of them burning from the inside out in agony from the toxin, she'd do it to prevent Snowy from crossing a line that would mark the difference between a lifetime of imprisonment in her own home country, or a downward spiral that could only end with Wonderland, or some other, alien realm (wherever that girl and her friends hailed from), to commit unspeakable acts against her person in retaliation for her crimes, before executing her, and parading her severed head in the streets to cheering crowds…

She still loved stupid Snowball too much to ever see that happen.

It was amazing how much raced across the mind in a matter of moments when so much was happening. One did not have to even think in words apparently, just some quick impressions and emotions, and suddenly everything is shown in a sort of surrealistic clarity, if only just for an instant.

And then no more thoughts came to mind when it came time to act, nothing but the sole movement of instinct and the flow of magic as the cloud of her ethereal shape darted forwards…

XXX

The thread, the damn thread! What the hex was it? It tugged, and pulled, and it hurt her chest for every surge of power she pulled from her will to keep the blasted Heart's Guard off of her! She could sense that it was feeding her the power that she needed, and sure, that made it too useful for her to simply try to use her new abilities to attempt to cut the thread…

But still, did it have to hurt so much?

Was it a latent part of her will? A power that had gone undetected for years until she had gotten her hands on some real magic? She had always felt something similar in her chest ever since her story had been complete, but no matter how many doctors she saw, none of them could find anything physically wrong with her heart.

She hadn't had the time to ponder on its occurrence, but boy could she feel it when it had stopped feeding her the power that she needed, the power that helped her keep the spell in line to do her will's bidding. At least when it was hurting she could feel something there, something tangible and real to grab onto. The absence of… well feeling anything at all in her chest should have been a relief, should have rejoiced at one less distraction, and proceeded to tear into the approaching guards in earnest. Drawing the power that she needed from them instead.

Instead, impossibly enough, she felt… overwhelming panic at the loss of sensation. Enough to get desperate enough to try to get it back mid-battle, despite herself, and her better sense in judgement.

And that was when she had spied the girl.

Supposedly young sacrifices were ideal for more power, or so she had read in the crumbling old texts. At least it sure seemed to be since that was what had been recommended, something young and pretty to give to the gods or whatever. She could only assume the primitive ancestors had assumed that more power from the blood of youths meant that their gods had liked their gifts, when in reality youth was just better all around.

Youthful beauty was perfection, and boy did a Snow White like her know that to be utterly true.

Switching gears from desperately swatting off soldiers to attempting to tear through them to get to the girl. She recognized her to be one of Apple's friends, a child who always dreamed of being a proper royal amongst her tiny community nestled within a quaint little, nobody realm. Obviously quite taken with Apple, the future Snow White, always the willing little busy body to run around her daughter like a happy little servant, serving her betters.

Well Apple wasn't the real Snow White, she was, and if the girl was so happy to serve for the betterment of the Snow White tale, then who was she to not make full use of a handy little sacrifice when it was most needed? She'd be certain that the girl was remembered for her bravery to help her real queen, it was only fair for a dear friend of Apple's. It was regrettable but necessary. Apple would understand.

The events that followed were like a blur to her senses, her only care was to get at the youthful lifeblood before some idiot accidentally trampled over it, and when she finally, finally got close enough, near enough to see that small chest heave fast breaths under dirtied blue bargain-bin cotton, the skin of the neck arteries jump and move in time to the pitter patter of a still beating heart, to see fresh tears well up from tear ducts when she extended inky tendrils of her magical hair to hold the girl still, and to hear her cry out on animal instinct as she raised her magical scepter-

Only for some sort of black smoke to come out of nowhere and block her view as her arms swiftly made their decent down. And when her blade had met flesh…

The agony that felt as though it were ripping open her chest made the sudden flash of horrid red light, so intense through the deafening roar of the following explosion of wind and shaking earth and some sort of unholy wild screaming of something not of this world-… well the pain just made all of that startling over dramatics seem not nearly so important in comparison.

And then the dust and magic had cleared, revealing the cowering youth, pinned beneath the too still body-… robe, or cloak, or some form of dark garment all but ripped to rags and shredded to near non-existence by the force of the magic used-… a body revealed to be one she knew intimately well-… she was so familiar with-… that she- that they- the witch on the ground was-… there was so much blood pouring out of the large slice in her back-… so, so much blood pouring out of **_skin_** paling to become as **_white as snow_** , her **_hair black as night_** blowing in the slight breeze, the girl under Clawstorm breaking out of her shocked stupor, yelling for the witch to wake up, cupping the witch's face with crimson-smeared hands, and the woman could just imagine how those slender fingers were touching **_lips_** that she had once known as well as her own and staining them to become **_as red as_** her own flowing life ** _blood_** …

And Apple had suddenly appeared, dressed strangely, glowing really, with a book that glowed with her, attached to her belt. The glow burning brighter as both she and her friend worked to try to stop the blood. Numbly she watched, her eyes unable to look away from the sight of Clawstorm's back, her precious Clawstorm's perfect skin, burnt around the wound, spread open in a deep…

The sound she makes catches Apple's attention, the look in the girl's eyes is alien to the point of making her practically look like a stranger, a stranger two seconds away from being deadly.

They both look down to where she's dropped her scepter, the power leeking from it burning away at the hem of Clawstorm's clothes and slightly singing the witch's twitching feet.

When their eyes meet again, Apple looks determined to murder her.

XXX

Apple barely remembers biting Faybelle, and kicking the Headmaster in the groin before managing to escape their hold on her. Spells she's memorized by heart forming on her lips and traveling in the air around her as she moves.

And suddenly her hands join Blondie's, sinking down to apply pressure to the wound that has flayed the witch's back wide open, her emotions flying out of control and her mind closing to an intense fixed point of unrestrained intensity at the sight of the woman who had acted more like a mother towards her than her own, flesh and blood mother, covered in blood! The, smell of burnt flesh making her stomach roil, seared cut skin and muscle parted to the point to where she could see the pale bits of hard bone of her exposed ribs and spine…

Snow White makes a sound catching Apple's attention, when the girl turns to look at the woman her emotions must be plain on her face because Snow White flinches and looks down to where she had dropped her precious scepter.

Apple has never hated anybody so much, with every fiber of her being than at that moment. Snow White senses this, sees it in Apple's eyes as the two stare at one another for a breath, Snow White coming to her own realizations as Apple lays a blood soaked hand on her spellbook. Her rage so intense there is no room for anything in her mind and body aside from the intense need for vengeance if the other even so dares try to reach for the blasted-

Snow White dives for her weapon. Something in Apple's mind snaps sharply at the indignity.

The roaring howl that escapes the princess's mouth as she snarls out the first spell complements the surge of brightly lit magic that sends Snow White flying through the air.

XXX

"Ngguhh!" Clawstorm hisses, barely conscious, unconsciously reaching out to cling onto Blondie's leg. "Owch…!"


	26. Chapter 26

It's a dirty trick, and she hopes that Raven will find it in herself to forgive her only mother for it, but Snowball needs someone to be fighting her with the same, if not greater, determination that she has been fighting the lot of them with.

And Apple is the woman's daughter for pity's sake! Flesh and blood, only heir, if there is anybody that could give Snowball pause or talk some sense into that thick hair-dyed skull it would be Apple!

At least that had been the _thought_ , when the witch had used the blood staining Apple's lightly tanned skin, as a temporary connection to send what magic wasn't being leeched away by Snowball, to Apple. As a form of protection, so that the girl could do what maidens were trained to do; appeal to one's better nature and guilt-trip the enemy into stopping.

She even said as such to Giles, who had realized what she had done, and was currently giving her a disapproving glare, from his place beside her cot.

"Honest! I may act all scary but I'd never put a child in danger! Just look at all the ruckus I caused the last time I had been set free, not one casualty or serious injury amongst the lot of them despite the theatrics!" She insisted, she would have also given him her best innocent look to drive the point home, if it weren't for the fact that he was currently more focused on combing the blood and dirt that was trying to matt in her hair.

"I'm not doubting your intentions dear, but did it not occur to you that perhaps lending your powers to one of the other _trained witch soldiers,_ that were nearby?" The old man pointed out primly, accepting a wet wipe from the Charming girl who was currently aiding him in his task of cleaning up her mass of thick hair.

"Appleseed's a maiden, they're both maidens, they were supposed to have some tearful heart to heart and-… and not go at each other like a pair of savages!" The witch winced as a healer injected her back with yet another numbing shot. From the other end of the small airship carrying them all off to safety, she could just make out the sound of the other children comforting the sniffling blonde girl she had saved, and Milton Grimm make a hurking tremble as they added yet another staple to keep her back from gaping open.

If she wasn't so focused on pouring so much energy towards her link with Apple, and hopped up on all the pain killers making everything feel all numb and floaty, she was pretty certain that she'd be just as nauseated as he was.

"Never underestimate how violent people will act when backed into a corner dear girl." Giles sighed, his tone sounded peculiar, but she was unable to place it. "Fairytale ancestry cannot take the complexities of human nature away; it just gives them an excuse to suppress it until it explodes."

"Huh?" She blinked.

"Just focus on protecting Apple, let us help keep you safe so that you can heal." The man removed one of his stained gloves to gently pinch her cheek, and tug up the bluish-grey surgical paper farther up her bared shoulder, providing her nude form with a modicum of covering (yet another thing to add to her humiliation).

"My feet are getting cold." She decided to complain, since she refused to be the sort who blushed and tittered on in embarrassment over a bit of nakedness in front of a bunch of people who weren't family or friends.

"Good!" Giles smiled, looking down to the cold gel-packs they wrapped her feet in. "It means that the heat that burned your feet is no longer burning under your skin!"

Figures that Snowball would go the extra mile in attempting to accidently kill her.

The witch tries to wriggle her head in the binds strapping her still to the cot.

"Keep still! Keep still!" Giles chastises. "You're just as bad keeping still now as you were as a child I swear!"

"Why's he sittin' funny?" The witch points her chin to the older Grimm Brother, letting Giles guide her head back into a more comfortable position.

"Apple kicked 'im with her heel." Hunter piped up gleefully.

"And then bit me!" Faybelle snarled bitterly.

Laughing hurt, but she had been prepared to do so carefully… that was until she felt a surge of power and emotion thrum throughout her entire body, causing her to sharply feel the state of her body without the mercy of the drugs for a horrible heartbeat.

"Clawstorm?"

She didn't know which one of the brothers had spoken, and it didn't matter.

"She- she's… how did she know the spell?" The witch demanded to the air.

"What's going on?" The sharp female voice sounded like it was coming from far away, drowned out by the thumping in her ears, her eyes unfocussed on the plastic tube feeding her blood-starved body one of many much needed transfusions.

The witch was too baffled to respond. "I never taught her how to summon that…"

XXX

"See? That wasn't so bad." Lizzie soothes, tone low enough for only Raven to hear. The hands clasped regally around the witch's offered arm subtly brush comfortingly over the rolled up sleeves of Raven's red shirt. "You wear authority like a glove, even in a crisis you are still capable of being the composed ruler you need to be to get everyone somewhere safe."

Raven leaned a little into Lizzie's side as she anxiously watched the last of her former classmates board the remaining train before departing off into the distance. "A lot of them didn't look nearly as afraid as I had initially predicted. I had thought that we would be dealing with a lot of panicked people, with lots of demands for answers that we do not yet have."

Lizzie tsked, shaking her head. "They don't know what we know Raven. Didn't see the same threat that Cerise and Ramona reported back to our people about what has happened to the dwarf royal guards. To most of them… this is just another crazy high school interruption, just like the ones that tended to happen while _we_ were attending school."

Raven knew that Lizzie's tense undertone indicated that what she was thinking was: _while Apple was going fairytale crazy and still had you in her sights, often bringing everyone else down with her when she completely lost it_.

It still twisted at Raven's gut that her current inner circle of peers was being so quick to caste Apple in the role of the villain. It was more complicated than that; _Apple did bad_ , Raven was not going to deny that, but in the same breath _Apple had not known_ she was being _bad_ \- or at least that was Raven assumed.

And that was what made worlds of difference to the witch; because if her assumptions on Apple's true character were true then that meant that Apple… was not completely at fault, that with the right counseling and care, Apple could learn to be the person that she wanted herself to be, not the embodiment of an ideal.

Apple had hurt her, had hurt her quite badly at that, there was no sugar coating it, and she wasn't about to make any self-destructive excuses by saying that she should have been strong enough to have resisted the worst of it. She may sometimes feel that way but then again that was mostly the depression talking and not her… but at the same time… Apple, hadn't been the direct cause of Raven's decaying health, it had been Snow White. Behind everything it had all been because Snow White, for reasons that Raven preferred not to dwell on, hated Raven and had used Apple as a sort of… long-distance extension, an oblivious agent, to bully the witch from afar.

Raven would even go as far as to bet her best cone hat that Apple hadn't even been aware that most of the things she had been putting Raven through was bad, or wrong. Raven had known for a very long time that most of the things that she had been taught about Evil Queens, Snow Whites, and how Raven's overall biological nature as a whole had been one major lie after another, and that Apple often suffered from a narrowed view of reality to the point to where Raven was comfortable calling it out as brainwashing, and child abuse.

Because not once had Raven ever seen Apple describe herself as an actual _person_ when it came to her future or her life as a whole, it was always "A Snow White must be like this", or "A Snow White is supposed to act like this", and whenever Apple did talk about her personal likes or dislikes it was always contradictory towards how she described what she'd be like as queen. Hex! She didn't even talk much about what her future goals were aside from wanting a fairytale as perfect as her mother's, with everything and everyone in perfect alignment to how it had always been described to her since she was a baby. There was nothing past that, nothing about what exactly a happily ever after entailed!

Raven had never once heard Apple speak of an original idea that she, herself, had come up with. Everything Apple said that she wanted was just… reciting what Snow White told Apple what she wanted! And Raven got the sense that if Apple had been allowed to think for herself, she wouldn't have chosen to follow even half of Snow White's plans for her! People with personal dreams and independent goals, didn't constantly worry themselves into a panicked frenzy over not being perfect enough because they got distracted by another interest (because apparently princesses weren't supposed to like math! Or be smarter than the boys!), they didn't wake up in cold sweats in the middle of the night because they had a nightmare about disappointing their mother, nor did they bend over backwards trying to shove everybody into living their personal lives in a specific way that only made sense in the head of one person!

Actually, come to think of it, Apple seemed to have been trying to save Raven more than once. Like the princess legit thought that Raven was going to die because _Raven in real life_ wasn't even the tiniest bit like how Snow White had told Apple about how _fairytale Raven_ was supposed to be like.

What kind of sick, twisted mind tells their kid that their friends will all die if they don't act accordingly, or that they will suffer a terrible and painful end?

Well… Headmaster Grimm, but then again he never had any children of his own, and he had inherited the position from his father, so she doubted that he'd ever developed any fatherly instincts, or liked children for that matter. Before the Rebels people rarely saw him outside of his office, and even after that… for the most part he seemed at his wit's end at the discovery that Raven, like most witches her age, possessed a brain and a will and knew how to use both to allow her to do whatever she pleased.

She probably terrified him, the silly man, it was a good thing that he had Giles now to deal with students more directly, she'd be fearing for the Headmaster's health and state of mind otherwise.

But still the man had never actively tried to harm Raven, just be an annoyance (though to be fair her was trying for " _All Knowing Authority Figure_ ", but that never quite translated correctly from his mind to his actions). And he had listened to her when trouble got out of control, and even committed enough care towards trying to protect his students from harm. During the Dragon Games incident, he had been quite stupidly brave standing up as best a toad could to her mother at full rage. He was out of touch, didn't seem to like any of the inhabitants of the school much, and was too stubborn to listen to anything outside of the bare necessary requirements to do his job… but at least his heart was always in the right place, and he would protect his students at all costs if it came down to it.

Snow white on the other hand, didn't seem to have a heart at all under all the acting and make-up, Raven would be sorely surprised if the woman even cared enough about Apple to… well, to do anything really that real mothers should do; like want their children to be happy, healthy, and safe… even if their path in life strays from the plan.

That was one thing Raven never had to worry about from her mother; never being loved even when she turned her back on her Evil Queen heritage, Raven's mother… always loved her, and found every opportunity to interpret ways that it would be allowed for an Evil Queen to be proud of her daughter. Never once while she had been doing the evil mass conqueror thing did she ever not want Raven to be at her side, as the daughter that she was proud to have born. She hadn't just wanted Raven to become the next face in a long line of faces, she had wanted their little family to be remembered, and respected by all.

Snow White just seemed to want to use Apple as a means to an end.

And despite herself Raven couldn't help but think that having a mother who wanted to conquer an empire for her people and family… was somehow less evil than the one willing to use her kid as a stepping stone to be more popular, and to stay in power.

For Apple's sake Raven hoped that there was some form of genuine motherly instinct inside Snow White.

XXX

Raven was lost in her thoughts again. Not that Lizzie really blamed her for it. But she would have preferred to keep talking, keep herself distracted with the internal war going on inside, happening now, at the most inappropriate moment ever!

Lizzie had decided to stand by Raven at all costs, and she was intent on keeping to that personal promise honorably, because she respected Raven and the witch had earned the right to be her equal so it was only natural…

But despite respecting Raven, knowing that Raven did not take manipulation, or people choosing what the witch should be doing without her input or permission, kindly and without a fight, still did not stay the whispers in the back of Lizzie's mind. The voices of Lizzie's heritage and training, hissing at her to take this chance, to seize an opportunity to bind Raven, a worthy warrior and leader, to the Heart Clan so that the clan and queendom may gain whatever resources a marriage between the two would surely come about, to snatch all this energy going into being loyal to Apple and take it for herself…

Now would be the perfect time, with the people themselves routing for such a union in the streets, and with Raven at just the right vulnerability for her to be gently swayed to Lizzie's side…

But Raven deserved better than to be manipulated at a time like this, it was frightening thinking about how easily it would be for Lizzie to open her mouth and-… and if she were successful, if Raven never caught on, then she could steal Raven away from Apple, have all of the witch's loyalty and unwavering commitment for herself! The first true King of Hearts in nearly two centuries of queens forgoing a chief spouse and merely making do with a harem!

And Raven would make an excellent King, not even a few minutes into the fairytale and Raven had been flawlessly perfect in her role, it had come so naturally that Lizzie was hard pressed to see the witch born for anything else! And what was more was that Lizzie knew that if she was successful in snaring Raven then the witch would be nothing but loyal till the end of Lizzie's life, and Raven, being Raven, may also… find a way to love Lizzie, the same way she currently loved Apple…

But was Lizzie capable of loving Raven back? As a Queen of Hearts commanding such loving devotion from another would be… merely a pleasant circumstance to be utilized, a type of revenge against Apple, a way to cement Wonderland into Raven's realms and… to slowly assimilate the foreign kingdoms into their own. Love may or may not play a role in anything on Lizzie's end of the relationship. She'd make certain that Raven would be want for nothing! But… that wasn't real freedom, was it.

And Raven deserved better than that. Deserved to stay on equal ground with her chosen lover, to get as much as she gave. Deserved happiness and her hard won freedoms for herself and her people.

No matter how pleasant the thought of having the witch loyally serving her in the name of the glory of the Heart Clan was, or how proud Lizzie would have felt to have had a co-ruler that she could trust as her lover. A victory in of itself that would have lived timelessly in the hearts of their country long after they both ceased to be-

"Your majesties!" Alistair bolted at a dead run towards them, sneakers squeaking as her turned a sharp corner.

"Alice? Whatever is wrong?" Lizzie called out, using the boy's new title.

"It's urgent news from the front!" Boy gasped, clinging to a pylon as he skidded to a stop in front of the two. "The Dark Good Queen has been injured badly, but is currently alive and awake! But Apple…, Apple's completely lost her marbles, and has been battling Snow White!"

" _What_?" Raven tenses up so much Lizzie fears that she might snap in half. "How? Apple stands no chance against magic! Princesses are encouraged not to learn how to defend against it! She'll be-… she'd be ashes in…!"

Alistair quickly puts his hands up. "Apparently she's learned how." He assures. "And what's more is that she appears to be holding her own, quite nicely in fact. Better than our own witches even."

" _Apple_ is?" It's now Lizzie's turn to gape.

"Surprised everyone." The boy scratches his head, clearly baffled. "Piping mad too, she is. Been a lot of yelling between them, the both have been hashing it all out into the open, and they've just made themselves all the madder."

"But how?" Raven choked, mystified. "If whatever Snow White has been using was powerful enough to give even my mother trouble, and injure her-…" The witch takes a shuddering breath. "She'll be fine right?"

"Oh yeah. They've taken her and the others out of the line of fire, she'll be brought to the nearest medical facility under armed guard so that she can be healed without worrying about anybody attacking her."

And to probably keep her mother from rising up, injuries be damned, and raise hell out of pure spite, Raven mentally added. Depending on how debilitating the wound was, Raven just couldn't imagine her mother not try to salvage what little dignity she had left after all of this, embarrassing enough that she was revealed to be cast in the roll of the misunderstood good guy, to be beaten out of commission by some maiden throwing the mother of all tantrums would be way too much.

"How is Apple even capable of doing better than our own witches?" Lizzie finished for Raven. "Even if she has been studying magic for… the past few months, she'd still be nowhere near the skill level of one of our witches, let alone practiced enough to surpass them! And on that note; why is it taking so long to take Snow White out for good!" At Raven's shutter and guilty gulp, she amends. "Knocked out I mean, so that we can neutralize the thing that is causing all the trouble and incarcerate her properly."

"Well… Queen family blood mostly, Snow White is leeching energy off of the Dark Lady Good Queen like a parasite and Apple… apparently she had rushed onto the scene of battle to help patch the Dark Lady's wound up… and had somehow forged a link to her as well? So they're both deriving power from the same, insanely powerful source. The sorcerer I talked to sounded pretty impressed actually, I got the impression that he thought that it was a good thing that your mother wasn't that interested in using real brute force to conquer everyone or else we'd all be done for." The boy tugged a lock of his hair, clearly doubtful that one lone witch, no matter how powerful, could have held control over so much territory all by herself. Realistically speaking.

Something in Raven's brain clicked. "Ritter von Blut, retter von das Konigin."

Alistair squinted in concentration. "Savior- no… Knight? Of… blood…, savior of the Queen. _Knight of blood, savior of the Queen_!" He translated.

"Ancient survival skill passed down through the generations, we are all taught how to do it shortly after we either conduct our first successful intellectual spell, or turn three-harvests-old." Raven mumbled in cold shock. "If the Queen or her heirs are wounded too badly to defend themselves, we will take out spilt blood and mark the bare skin of our nearest allies and form a temporary connection to them with our magic… an outlet to fight and distract so that we may escape and heal… and hopefully beat the enemy while we are at it."

She turned her full attention to the boy. "Alist- Alice, please tell me; how bad are things out there between Apple and her mother? No sugar coating!"

At this the boy shakes his head helplessly. "Lady Cheshire has stated… it's not looking good my Lady King, not only are they fighting with magic so strong that they both can't be torn away from battle and separated to peaceful corners… At this point there are legitimate fears from our senior veteran forces that the taste for blood and wrath has become so great that mother and daughter will go as far as to fight to the death!"

"You- they are certain? Absolutely certain that they'd go that far? Two pampered maidens without a shred of training in battle or tactics, who have gone into hysterics because of a bad hair day, or because they had a moment where they were unable to fully act the part of a perfect little fair weakling, will suddenly rise up with great reserves of power, and tear each other down with the viciousness of creatures a thousand times more savage than their well-bred pampered selves?" Lizzie demands sharply, Raven now trembling beside her. The young queen does not have to look to know that her King is now frightened quite badly.

The boy's face was grim. "My queen, what is more dangerous than those who have experienced their first taste of their darker natures? Of those who have demanded the impossible out of life without a thought for those that they were hurting by their ambitions? Of those who have been played like the strings on an instrument by hands that over-dominated their lives, and to an alien tune so oppressive that they were never able to hear the beat of their own desires and dreams? If you placed a wise and experienced warrior queen beside a sheltered princess driven to the point of madness… my queen who would you feel safer wielding a dagger? One who can plot and understand the consequences of each and every action that they take, or the one who can't, the one who is incapable of such concepts? That they hold the power to kill with a single careless strike, and that they too are not immortal if the coin of fate falls the other way?"

Lizzie cursed, knowing that he was right; even a bird with its wings clipped and locked in a tiny cage since the day it had been hatched, could prove deadly if provoked into a stress-filled frenzy (well the ones from Wonderland could, but then again the Wonderlandian version of cute little song birds had teeth, four sets of clawed limbs, and the most colorful tiny ones were also the most poisonous).

"Lizzie, please!" Raven begged, her eyes doing something that Lizzie never thought the witch capable; where her eyes were wide, soulful, and pleading. Not in a I-want-a-cookie-please way but a, please-oh-gods-please-I-don't-want-the-one-I-love-to-get-hurt-I'd-never-forgive-myself-if-I-didn't-go-off-to-rescue-her sort of way.

And with that the _temptation_ to steal Raven away as a prize for her clan vanished. The witch had chosen whom she wanted, and Lizzie respected Raven to the point to where she was more than fine with it.

"They're stronger than our best witch's Raven." Lizzie attempted to dissuade, though it was only a token gesture.

"My mother's magic knows mine." Raven countered. "I don't have to get between them, just get close enough to lend Apple enough power to… win. To save us all."

 _No matter the cost_ , was what went unspoken. Raven was a ruler after all; if a situation called for such an extreme then it would be done, swiftly, and with professionalism… no matter how badly she would just want a peaceful solution, or how badly it would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Lizzie paused, not hesitating, but silently thinking apologizing feelings to the witch who was born into a role too great and too important to live a normal, non-noble life.

"…Call in our court and arrange transport!" She barked. "Whatever your King needs so that she can use her power to win our lands this decisive battle!"


	27. Chapter 27

Lady Cheshire tested the soreness in her cheek by prodding the inside of it with her tongue. The skin ached in protest around the sight of the burn, but at least she could still feel _something_ , and not just something but an understandable amount of something that was just the right kind of ache and not crippling pain, meaning that there was a high probability that the magic in her body hadn't been poisoned by whatever-it-was that had been thrown at her.

Her eyes were cast down at that blonde child's forgotten mirror-pad, contemplating seriously over the fact that her hands were covered in someone elses blood and the fact that the damn device was still recording. And as she continued to think she found herself "accidently" directing the camera over to where Queenie and her little brat princess-who-was-as-feral-as-a-Bandersnatch at the moment, were screeching at each other like two rival feline queens, and she continued to stare and think. The sort of thinking that she rarely participated in due to the fact that her philosophies tended to side more with enjoying life and laughing at everybody else.

"O-oh deary me, that wound looked mighty bad on Dark Lady's back!" The Senior White Rabbit tittered fretfully, waving a tiny paw at the departing airship. "Ooh little Raven and her kind father will be so upset if she got worse!"

 _And are you worried because you actually care about the witch-girl or are you just worried that your new King and her father will be too grief-stricken to continue taking up the ax against Ever After and avenge the embarrassment of being bested by some half-wit with a pretty painted face?_ The woman wondered scathingly as she too distractedly waved her hand in the general direction of where the medics had hauled the injured witch woman away, and dragged off an entourage of one worried adult and around seven or so hollering children (for an old guy, limping around oddly, Milton Grimm had some healthy lungs).

The March Hare was hopping up and down the hill to the full attention of platoon leaders, booming at them with his tiny hairy chest puffed out, and a flask of something (hares in general, and March Hares especially, rarely participated in battles sober) clutched in his paw, ordering the troops in a riddlish dialect that loosely translated to something like:

" _MAN THE TROOPS! KEEP QUEENIE BOXED IN SO THAT HYSTERICAL LASSIE CAN BOX 'ER 'ROUND THE EARS SOMETHIN' GOOD! LET THE BLOODY CIVIL WAR 'TWEEN THE HORRID WHITE CLAN FIGHT OUT DER FAMILY BUSINESS GOOD AN' PROPER_!"

…And for which Lady Cheshire was mighty grateful that riddlish was not an exact science and understood by very few outsiders. The tiny hairy madman was never politically correct, or child friendly for that matter, especially while hammered. Ever After and its sensitivities were better off not knowing that one of Wonderland's best drunken generals (an actual thing since a few clans had somehow developed methods of drunken warfare in the bad old days) had just tried to order everybody to let a child have it out with a dangerous criminal.

 _He hasn't had this much fun since he tied up those dwarves to that stone column a few weeks back_. The woman snorted at the memory.

"Queen witches are made out of sterner stuff!" The Senior Mad Hatter announced cheerfully, trying to both lighten the mood and distract them all from the slurred whooping and catcalling from their comrade.

"And she owes you a great deal for your kindness towards herself and her family." The Woman-cat sighed, knowing that the man both desperately hoped that the witch could shed light upon the disappearance of his wife, and that he adored the Dark Lady's offspring as if she were his second daughter (and she suspected that he and the Good King were as _close as family_ too, seeing as how seamlessly the Hatters had moved in to the Good King's estate, and how young Madeline had been continually introduced to the public as an "honorary princess", secretly named as an emergency successor to Raven's current position, and just how _chummy_ the two men were towards one another…).

" _She and I have grown to be rather good friends I think_." The Hatter hummed thoughtfully in a riddlish dialect so old that even the woman had trouble mentally translating it, eyeing the camera in Lady Cheshire's hands wearily, obviously trying not to let worry for the woman's condition infect his voice (showing too many weaknesses on the battle field was never a good idea), or give way anything that the average Wonderlandian or outsider could translate at all easily. " _Not a bad hat herself actually, got the mind of a true Wonderlandian, though she does need a friend right now_ … _really I believe that a good mind healing, and being given the therapy of a returning warrior will do her worlds of good_!"

" _Even more so now that she's practically family right_?" Lady Cheshire decided to grace the man some manners and meowled at him in her clan's distinctive tongue (having your own dialects and language codes per clan leader and family house historically saved many a life).

But still, she made certain to say it sarcastically, partly out of due course, partly because sidling oneself and future generations of kin into the fabric of a heavy hitting royal family (though in _what_ capacity exactly was still to be determined) was something only fools sought out to do. Fools with death wishes of trying to take over everything in order to become some posh prick with a fancy-

"Yes." The man spoke in standard, looking at her unwavering in the eyes, his expression catching the other off guard. "She is family now, she may not have her throne, but she will have family, and a clan to return to once she had been sufficiently healed."

Oh… well she supposed that fools that were hopelessly filled to the brim with love and caring, wanting to fill up empty seats in a small clan house after a bad turn with war, had a better chance of surviving too. It was too nauseatingly sweet for her tastes but then again she supposed that their new King could use more family in her ranks as well, seeing as how pathetically lonely ostracism has made her over years past.

Though it did mean that Wonderland was going to have to bugger off with the Hatter clan's affairs, since, if they survived today, they'd become loyally interwoven with a different world's kingdom clan. Answering to the new King because she's family and only listening to the Queen of Hearts because it's polite, not obligation.

Which… didn't completely balance out this odd inherent feeling of instinctual wrongness in this situation, but it did help marginally.

It was odd in a way, for so long Wonderland has had the upper hand on everything, from gaining new provisional lands, to always being ten steps ahead of the enemy, to quite literally stealing away a very young, yet very prominent political figure into their story. At this rate, even if they did die out here, consumed by the acidic flames of a maiden gone-mad-in-a-bad-way, Wonderland was set to continue growing stronger, gaining more influence…

Gaining more lands, gaining more support to start taking over-

Perhaps the Hatter Clan had the right idea; getting out before they choked on their nationalism and lost their dignity.

And just look at her, the good little soldier, the obedient honorable citizen. Doing everything in the name of the state without question, without a sense of self-

Twin enraged shrieks echoed loudly over the flashes of magic, and the yelling of the guards to back away to a safer distance.

XXX

The bright blow that hits her is a shock, a painful, unexpected shock. The fact that it had come from Apple, who had been instructed never to use magic outside of certain, princess approved lessons, is a bit of an unwelcome surprise. And really she'd be more outraged by being disobeyed like this if she weren't so distracted by the blooming pain in her chest and the fact that she was falling from an impressively dizzying height to the dusty ground below.

Her scepter lights up her form in a stinging spectral green, slowing her decent to the point to where she is able to neatly tumble onto loose gravel and charred turf without more than a few bruises.

She'd been able to grab the scepter.

With little better to do in her shock she swung her arms in wide, devastating arcs at those around her, mind curiously disconnected from her body, keeping her physical form in motion and fighting even as white noise played inside her skull.

Somehow even that victory, having grabbed the scepter before being blown so far away from Clawstorm's-… seemed hollow and distant past it's immediate use for survival. She was currently surrounded by enemies, like a swarm of persistent flies, and her chest hurt! Like blood welling up from an open wound, it poured through every tiny crevice and it wouldn't just wipe off and- it-… it flowed like- like…

 _Clawstorm_ , it flowed like-… and the thread in her chest was frayed and hanging on by threads in some places and _glowing liquid-like redjustlikeClawstorm's_ -

The thought wasn't even finished, the sea of approaching, roaring, sharp projectile throwing, _soldiers_ parted. Jumped apart actually. To make way for a small, yelling (boy was it yelling), glowing dot, which leaped and bounded towards her, magic assisting the figure to move towards Snow White much, _much_ faster than the others-

And it came at her all loud noise and furious glowing energy and it was so terrifying that she barely reacted when another blast hit her, and then another, and another, until she tripped, was pushed back to roll painfully down a small hill, and end up sitting stunned, staring up at her daughter's wrathful glare, the girl shaking with suppressed fury.

"Give up. You give up now mom. This has gone too far and you know it." Apple breathed harshly, as if she was trying to remind herself she was still talking to her mother.

"That is no way for a proper maiden to act young lady!" The words were automatic through the numbing buzz (as well as the auditory, a side effect to this magic was the constant hum of buzzing, not unlike the sound of a horde of flies, or hornets).

"Look who's talking!" Apple snarled, daring the nerve to bare her teeth!

"Don't talk back to me!" The queen boomed, acidic power flared up, making Apple's sinuses sting slightly.

"Put down the stick mom!" Apple continued as if the other hadn't spoken. "Just put it down and surrender. This is crazy!"

"You obviously don't know what you speak about!" Snow White snarled back, her voice hissing, and clicking like an irritated insect, gesturing to the circle of soldiers that have already set up a perimeter a safe distance away. The greasy green-black vapor swaying about her form moved with her, mimicking her gesture in a way that made the hairs raise on the back of the younger's neck. "How can you possibly say that? Can't you see Apple? It's their fault that it's come to this! The tale of Snow White requires a lifetime's dedication from all of its characters, they all must be unerringly perfect! Everything must not deviate from-"

Apple shakes her head, clutching her hair in frustration. "What's wrong with being an individual? With being a queen that people can distinguish differently than all the ones that came before her? What's wrong with being yourself- why can't I ever be myself? Not Snow White but Apple! Just Apple!"

"Blasphemous child!" Snow White spat, incensed, it sounded as though the woman was talking into a metal tube, the shifting patterns of viscous smoke growing thicker around the woman. "We are nothing without the fairytale! Nothing! To become one so pure and maidenly is the only thing in our family that truly matters! How dare you question me! Who do you think you are without the fairytale? Hmm? You're a nobody that's what! You weren't even born properly! How are you suppose-?" **FHOOSH** went the spell the girl threw at her full force, sending Snow White tumbling back a good ten feet.

"Why is it always the same excuses with you?" Apple howled, coming at the other with purple glowing blood-stained fists sloppily swinging. Aiming to knock the scepter from the other's grip. "My blonde hair, the way my skin tans so easily, how it's not nearly pale enough, my interests in numbers and the mechanics of how potions work!"

Snow White snarled kicking Apple in the gut, sending the girl sprawling back. "You little- ACK!" But was promptly knocked over herself at the instinctual wave of magic bursting forth from the girl's hands.

"How I'm not pretty enough!" Apple coughed, all rough and savage, the heat of rage filling her up, aiding the flow of the foreign magic within her. "How I'm not good enough!" She claws her hands onto a few sizable stones and began to throw with the precision of someone well practiced in rather creative interpretations of "appropriate lady-like activities" such as playing advanced croquette from the tops of rooftops and participating in dragon riding games from several hundred feet up. "Not fair enough, not attentive enough, not helpless enough, not poised enough, not well articulate enough, _NOT POPULAR ENOUGH_!"

Snow White made outraged grunting noises using up energy to shield and attempt to throw back the now glowing hot rocks pathetically attempting to stone her to submission, the cheering din of the Wonderlandian forces rising in intensity for every hit that managed to land on its mark, making her growl out in pain with every blow. "And now you're not enough of anything your worthless child!" The older snapped back spitefully.

At that the girl bodily slammed herself into the elder, and for a good while it was all howling shrieks, kicking, biting, pulling of hair, the hiss of magic clashing against curse, and the roar of the crowed watching from the sidelines.

XXX

Here she was, calmly watching a match to the death, and only seeing two annoying pests trying to save them all the future trouble, by taking each other out. She wasn't seeing a mother and daughter pushed to the brink, nor a child fighting off a maiden gone insane due to being forced to live in an extremely repressive, impossible role, and not being able to do or love as she wanted…

…And all she could think about was… nothing. And that was the problem; because if you didn't think for long enough, didn't ask questions, then it was all too easy to be standing there like a fool, the blood of a woman who had asked for _none_ _of this_ and the gadget of an innocent girl who had nearly been eviscerated not even fifteen minutes ago, _both in her hands_ , and all she could hear in her head was how this was all for the benefit of Wonderland, all hail the home country, we keep winning so let's push it until we win-… win what you ask?

We haven't a clue but let's _take_ everything anyway!

" _The child of the Locks clan should have never been out here in the first place_." The Senior Hatter meows in her family's tongue, pointedly looking at her, trying to get her to understand through the way his eyes are _begging_ her to see the obvious in… something. " _Clawstorm should have never had to get injured saving young Blondie, and Apple should not be the one to have to fight against her own mother-as awful as Snowball White is- none of this should have happened_. _Why aren't the soldiers trying harder to break up this fight? That's what I want to know, since Apple is not our enemy._ "

His accent is atrocious but he carries a heavy point.

" _Ah yes, it is unfortunate, but I have full confidence in the Dark Lady's power to survive anything thrown at her, the hysterical gel is sniffling but safe, and our greatest foe is fighting to the death with her own heir, by the end of this the horrid lands of Ever After shall be brought to their knees_!" A random hare soldier boomed in a series of high-pitched chirps of his specie's native tongue, then dissolving into giggles, a telltale sign of the beginning stages of blood-lust madness (a particular state of mind that some rodent soldiers can meditate themselves into, in order to become as bloodthirsty and ruthless as possible for upcoming battles, it is rarely (so rare it's found only in extreme individualized cases) used these days and can take weeks to get into the right state, and likewise it is very difficult to break someone out of it, often leading to permanent psychological damage).

Let it never be said that bunnies couldn't fight at least, Lady Cheshire glared down at the twitching, sniggering, soldier, while the Senior Hatter heaved a put upon sigh, adjusting his slightly singed hat as he did so.

"At the very least I do hope that we can rescue the princess." White Rabbit piped up in standard, a bit uncertainly, he was always a bit slower with coming to conclusions despite his oddly absent-minded instincts always coming right onto the point. "The King will be so distraught if anything bad were to happen to her… or if she did something bad to Snow White. Very into peace and harmony our King is and all."

" _A pity since our King is now ensnared by a horde of clans with inherited hands stained with the blood of foes that our ancestors had relieved from them_ … _Truly heartbreaking for one who wants nothing but a better chance at life to be forced down to the point to where she has had to seek help from those born for war_." The Senior Hatter muttered, looking out to where Apple and her mother were pulling each other's hair, a helpless expression crossing his face briefly. "… _And I fear with each passing day of this drawn out conflict… that my other daughter, one born of my blood and all of my heart, may fall into a pit of despair and turn towards her ancestral blood of wrath. A road that she may never be able to travel back from again once she sets down upon it_."

And what would the fate be of Kitty and all of their children if this were left to continue on? Lady Cheshire wondered with growing dread sickly hardening and falling to the pit of her stomach. What was going to become of the children if Wonderland's thirst for vengeance grew to the point to where they lost their hold upon it?

And what the hell was she doing? Playing the helpless bystander and the good, mindless little pawn!

How pathetic.

XXX

"We can't get too close." Lizzie reminded Raven on the deck of the fast approaching battle-airship (an invention that Wonderland had happily, and promptly adopted from the monster dimension, along with other delightfully useful things that could be adapted for regular showy use as well as battle). "You're the King now, we can't risk your health by having you charge out into the middle of danger anymore, this isn't high school."

Raven let out a despairing breath at the reminder of how often she had come to danger while at what was supposed to be a safe learning environment. The irony of her current occupation as the protectorate of her people, and her location, inside a well-guarded machine that was capable of flying high enough to dodge even the most devastating of a novice maiden-gone-completely-off-her-rocker's tantrum attacks was not lost on her. "I can at least lend my powers out to the other witches you've insisted come aboard with us my queen? I may have a shaky grasp upon how to use my powers to their full potential, but a well-trained witch will know best how to channel it all."

Raven fixes Lizzie with a pleading look. From the corner of her eye she can see a few stern looking people in fanciful (as is the fashion in Wonderland) pointy hats straighten up to full attention.

Lizzie made to appear as though she were considering Raven's proposition, but really she was giving herself a moment not to snicker at how _keen_ some of their reinforcements looked right then. Now was not the appropriate time to laugh hysterically at how ridiculous they all appeared, being all cool and confident in their young rulers, honored even, that Raven would allow such an important borrowing of her powers, when in reality; herself, Raven, the rest of their friends and court… were utterly petrified, without a single clue as to what they were doing.

"Of course my dear." Lizzie nodded regally, hiding her shaking hands behind her back, grateful for Kitty's discrete shift in stance to better hide her trembling. "All the better to show that Wonderland does not take these sorts of things kindly, nor in half-measures. And who better to help show the worlds our combined strength than having the King demonstrate her powers and her desire to have this all end quickly, with us as the clear victor of this battle."

Raven smiled weakly at Lizzie as the adults cheered and applauded, over the past few months the two of them having grown to the point to where they could read the real emotions, the fear and uncertainty, beneath the fabrications of natural-born powers to lead effortlessly.

The rest of their court appeared to be in the same state, which was comforting for a few brief moments… until their head battle-witch handed over a nasty looking obsidian bladed dagger, and Raven humorlessly directed Bunny to begin making precise incisions along her fingers, hands, and arms, while Maddie and Chase held her still. As ordered Alistair stood off to the side with the medical kit, keeping pressure on the wounds with a cloth while each witch present was marked on the forehead with Raven's trembling fingers.

XXX

How in the world was she to call herself a patriot if she did not do what was right and honor the blood of her clan? Lady Cheshire sneered to herself, whipping off excess blood before typing furiously on the little screen in front of her.

She had always been a proud little Wonderlandian anarchist, why stop now?

"No good." Lady Alice Wonderland coughed, running up to their group, a fretting Healer hot on her tail, attempting to get her seared arm cooled off and bandaged. "True Love may be the only thing that's keeping that girl from being flamed to a crisp, at least that's what I've been able to gather from _that_ little encounter." She grumbled as the Healer caught up to her. "I can't coax the child away! And Queenie over there isn't doing so well herself, at this rate- what is that woman up to now?" Lady Wonderland sighed in exasperation, before yelping when the Healer smartly dunked her burning sleeve into an ice bucket.

"Looking through this kid's files." Lady Cheshire spoke innocently, as if it was of little consequence. "It would seem that she had accidentally sent a large file of what this thing recorded to all of her little friends."

"Oh dear." The Senior Hatter seemed to sag in relief a touch. "I suppose that Wonderland can't use such footage to her advantage later on."

"At least the little princess has redeemed herself, taking on her horrible mother like that, quite brave actually." The woman-cat hummed noncommittally.

"Yes…" Lady Wonderland glared balefully at the two of them. "And I suspect that her right to her throne will go unchallenged… if she survives being pummeled to death by her own mother."

Senior White Rabbit froze, looking up at them all with wide, soulful eyes.

"By the way!" Senior Hatter interrupted before a second fight broke out. "The young Queen and King are coming! Well… not exactly coming here, but they'll be close by!" He held up his phone. "King has honored a ship-full of witches with some blood-right thingy, which will help us get little Apple-dearie away, safe and sound as peas!"

"Well it's about time." Lady Wonderland reluctantly huffed, still glaring at the two. "This whole thing has been drawn out far too-"

Several clattering bangs erupted along with the stench of burnt wood splinters… and flesh, stained the air. The magical seals protecting the flooring of the school's ancient attic blew apart, letting loose a flood a small (unavoidable bad pun) army of burning skeletal dwarves, skittering towards their distressed mistress.

Lady Cheshire spat out words that would curl the shoes of a bog priest (filthiness is godliness according to them) with how filthy they were, snapping pictures of the scene left and right until she had the sense to figure out how to hit the live record button. Not even caring whom she broadcasted to, as long as someone from the outside was seeing this! What had become when stupid people in power didn't do their jobs.

Which was just as well that she was also attempting to keep one hand over her mouth and nose to keep from retching at the foul stench, though the sensation of condensed tortured souls nearly did her in anyways.

If she was going to face up against those things and lose, she at least wanted whoever was listening to know what happened to her. What will happen to all the fallen brave soldiers now fighting the corpse shells of the little bastards. To not be forgotten, just like how those dwarves- or at least who they _used_ to be- very well might be in time's history after this.

If fucking fairytales wanted to know why too much strict order in their traditions was a bad thing, then she sure as hell was going to show them. Give them _all_ a show to gawk their pretty little eyeballs at.

XXX

Apple hissed clutching her burned cheek with a hand that had crooked fingers and deep gouges from being stomped on by a heeled shoe, gingerly testing her bitten tongue against a loosened tooth that ached with a sickly sort of feeling whenever it moved. She scrabbled to grab her battered spellbook and hold it protectively to her chest as best she could with the pain fairing inside the shoulder of her free arm, breathing hurt, but whether it was from her side or her bruised middle she couldn't tell, though the blood flowing from her nose into her open mouth didn't help things, at least she was dimly grateful that she couldn't smell her burnt hair at the moment, her throbbing scalp still hadn't shaken off the sensation of heat that had turned her for a loop before her mother had slapped- no hit her. Hit her and then flung her against the rocky side of the hill.

Purple magic burst forth around her, trying to protect her.

And there her moth- there _Snow White_ stood, she was a little battered, her hair a mess, and her Botoxed lips even managing to look more abnormally swollen from so much open mouthed yelling and one last desperate attempt for Apple to stun the older into releasing her grip on her scepter, than maidenly beautiful. The woman stood, after all of that, she was still able to brush herself off and strut around, yelling, scolding, flinging bolts of horrid toxin at the Wonderlandians shooting arrows and magic spells at her, looking even more horrid and evil as she raged, the magic she held around herself like a cloak starkly at odds with the delightful, sunny blue sky, slowly sinking into a brilliant cheerful sunset in the distance.

For a good moment Apple was left in shock, only really evil villains got into a froth and ranted this much. Not that she'd ever really seen much of real villains, the ones at school always sounded so bored or rehearsed when they practiced.

They never sounded so real. So scary. Everything hurt, her mother- her own mother had-… hurt her!

The girl was so jarred that she almost missed the change in pitch from the crowed around them, and even then she barely comprehended what she was seeing as she turned her head to see the new players on the battlefield. She half believed them to be imagined specters, a hallucination, or some form of summoned demonic creatures-

But her eyes focused, unable to look away, and in betrayal to her desire for all of this to be just a dream, her brain recognized the familiar suits and colorful beards, things she'd seen her entire life, constantly protecting her, watching over her as she grew up.

And now they had been reduced to this.

There were no wails or sobbing when tears silently fell down her bruised face.

"One job! That pathetic man had one job! To provide me with a suitable heir! And yet I get stuck with this?" Snow White ranted, so angry she was seeing cross-eyed.

 _Not suitable, not fair or pure, not right by birth._

"Useless, I should have done away with him long ago, him and his endless disappointments! Started all over again, with a proper story, and a proper prince the second time around. I can't believe I wasted so much time training a lost cause!"

 _Useless. Lost cause. Bad._

"The second child would have been better, less rotten!"

 _Rotten to the core, Apple, the poisoned fruit of her evil mother's womb, that rotted before she was even born. Pretty outer skin, toxic poison underneath, to tempt and hurt all those foolish enough to get too close. Forever alone, forever cursed…_

 _…Cursed… an illusion…_

"Clawstorm would have-… she was just so good at making things go _right_!"

 _Clawstorm Queen, the Good Queen, knew her way around poisons; Apple didn't hurt her, loved and mentored the poisoned Apple like she was her own daughter…_

 _Like she was a good seed._

 _And Apple loved her foster mother, even before she was the mother she had always wanted, Snow White knew everything about the Good Queen, taught Apple everything, showing off her perfect pet fake villain, showing apple her greatest accomplishments, her fake villain's most powerful spells…_

 _A spell Apple stared at for hours once upon a time, a spell that Raven had recognized in a book once, had pointed it out and Apple had taken a picture, and stared dreamily at it for hours and hours..._

 _It had looked so complicated but… it was rather simple wasn't it? At its base? The poison that wasn't a poison, the curse that wasn't a curse? It would have taken a lot to get it that big, but once it was there, it would stay, simple but powerful._

By heart Apple began to recite. Called out to the last thing that made her feel safe.

"You're in so much trouble when we get out of this young lady!" Snow White finally rounded on the girl again. "Bringing me so much trouble! I swear some days I'm left wonder if you were even _mine_ to begin with, and I birth you! You, insufferable brat!"

Apple ignored her.

"Stop mumbling!" The older grabbed the girl by her collar, attempting to pull the younger up by it, only to come up empty on the upswing that was supposed to leave the other dangling in the air, the dark fabric disintegrating in her hands before she could even pull up.

"Apple the poisoned Apple…" Apple murmured steadily, eyes focused, tearful, and clear with anger.

"What?" Snow White snapped, only to dive for the ground as the sky opened up with a thunderous boom loud enough to be heard by all of Wonderland, giant illusions of half a dozen cursed clouds being pulled through space and reforming far too close for comfort above them, the scary green appearance paling into a more normal whitish-grey hue… yet for some reason seeming to appear even more menacing than before. The wind picked up, distracting as Apple fumbled with her book, the little book that was so precious to her now…

And began to read spell after spell out loud…


	28. Chapter 28

A/n: Sorry for the slow updates, been super busy with big life changes and smaller writing projects that I'm hoping to finish soon so that I can try to find a publisher, and publish my original, non-fanfiction-related stuff.

But I will get around to completing all of my stories, it's good practice for me actually, so of course I'm keeping that up! Never try to fix something that ain't broken and all that.

Hope you find this chapter worth the wait!

XXX

"I need aid in holding her majesty still while I work!" The airship rocked as a Healer called out behind himself seconds after purple magic began streaming from Raven's eyes and she had promptly collapsed to the floor.

Maddie was at the witch's side in an instant. "Raven?"

"I'm fine." Raven choked out assurance, as she was helped up into a sitting position, the Healer immediately getting back to work on bandaging the girl's arms. Behind them the last of the remaining battle-witches were filing out in order to take flight on their cleaning instruments (brooms, vacuums, mops, and so on). "I just got a little overwhelmed when my magic connected with my mother's that's all."

"Can you sense what's going on out there?" Kitty's demand was somewhat muffled by how her face was pressed into one of the glass port-windows. "It looks like a bunch of gods are playing Frisbee with a whole bunch of giant clouds out there!"

Raven concentrated for a moment, mind scrambling to decipher the odd snippets of detail coming from her mother's power. And to the older woman's credit, she was apparently still coherent enough to have guessed what Raven wanted, and reached out for her daughter.

A tendril of cloud, white, yet tainted a brush of lavender hue, gently enveloped the ship.

"Apple's really hurt." Raven gasped, finding it difficult to speak around the lump of emotion in her throat. "Snow White's done a real number on her, she's scared, so she summoned… something. Not sure how good it will do her though, it sure doesn't feel very menacing-"

A high pitched whine and a bright flash of light enveloping the clouds in a furious glow, is the only warning given before everybody jumps at the sound of a terrible, sudden BOOM!

"Never mind." Raven hastily corrects. "It's menacing now."

"Are all fights between daughters and their evil mothers filled with so much drama and property damage?" Kitty asks acidly.

"Grandmother usually avoided undue property damage by dunking ice water on my mother whenever she got too fed up." Raven murmured gloomily. "Usually worked to cool her head."

"Which ones? Your granny or your mother?"

"Both, traditional Evil Queen attire is a pain in the butt to conduct proper magic in when all wet, and even worse for trying to run in for the attack, the velvet skirts get in the way you see." The witch was looking out the port windows, worry shining clearly behind the glow of her eyes. "You don't suppose that it might work here? On Snow White?" The tone was pathetically hopeful, in a helpless sort of way.

Maddie's heart broke in two.

"We can certainly try I'm sure!" Alistair hastily tried to console while Bunny patted her pockets for her phone. "At the very least it might distract her."

"Be sure to add the order to put lots of soap and whatever hot sauce or whiskey the troops want to spare into the mix." Lizzie quietly suggested, handing the blonde her official phone to use.

"Seriously?" Raven croaked at them, sounding more than a little wobbly from the tears pricking her eyes.

"When your cultural history consists of mentally insane warriors, and long patches of constant battles, any idea, even a seemingly silly one, is worth trying." Maddie assures gently, trying to sound positive. She couldn't help but feel somewhat guilty at the combined fact that, given her dearest friend's current position, Raven could no longer go out just anywhere without an armed escort constantly following her, and battles were expressly prohibited without even a second's thought. Raven could do nothing but sit helplessly and channel energy towards the other witches using her powers to boost their own, she couldn't directly help Apple, or anybody, because she was the King of Hearts now, and part of the King's responsibility was to stay alive to help protect and rule beside the Queen of Hearts.

By granting Raven the freedom to leave school, and all the troubles that had come with it… they had simultaneously clipped her wings, Maddie realized with cold dread. Sure they all wanted Raven to become one of them, and Raven had allowed it to be so, but how much of that decision was based on what Raven actually wanted? She wasn't necessarily happy with fighting so hard to be free from fairytales only to turn around and be stuffed into a different role, but she had gone along with it… because the idea of Snow White sinking her claws into her was far more terrifying than this.

Maddie had been there when Raven had taken stock of her situation as it was, and listlessly deemed it too much of a risk to both herself and the people around her to continue on as a non-fairytale monarch. It wasn't an easy decision for her friend, but Maddie had been so _certain_ that turning Raven into one of them was… simply the next logical step.

But did Raven actually want this for herself? Maddie sort of doubted it, and it probably didn't help Raven knowing that her new, self-appointed court, hated Apple so much right now. It probably hurt her a fair bit at how apathetic they'd all been at the prospect of Apple getting hurt.

"I'm going out to help." Maddie announced, reaching for a discarded bloodied cloth.

"Maddie no!" Raven tried to grab the other's wrist, only to be sharply reminded that she couldn't move her hands all that much without coming to odds with the bandages and pain.

"Apple will recognize me Raven." Maddie reasoned. "She'll recognize me and she'll let me get close enough that I can transport her out of there. I'll bring her here, to you, where she'll be safe."

"But I can't risk losing you too if things go wrong!" Raven burst out into tears. "You're my sister! I don't want you to get hurt!"

"And you are mine." Maddie reminded gently. "And you are hurting, as your sister it is my job to make what's hurting you go away. I'll get Apple back for you. And we'll both come back here, safe and sound."

Raven opened her mouth to argue but was interrupted by a chipper ring tone and Alistair confusingly looking towards Bunny. "Your phone is calling me."

XXX

Apple hunched down as best she could behind the magical barrier she just summoned, frightfully clinging to her book and struggling with great effort to concentrate on planning out which spell would be the most useful next.

Concentrating wasn't working out as well as she wanted it to, a fact emphasized when Snow White roared in fury at the approaching Wonderland soldiers, and the giant clouds of magic she was currently attempting to burn away with her scepter.

The woman's voice had steadily begun to morph into something that did not sound very human at all. The whole situation worsening as the strange greenish flames grew higher around her mother's body, the inky smoke turning into something that looked rather greasy and sticky, but the woman's eyes were the worst of all, with the substance obscuring the ocular orbs and pouring out of sockets in streams of the smoke… and if Apple looked too closely, Snow White's eyes were- so horrible she- not even humanly recognizable and-… and…

One of Snow White's minions skittered ( _actually skittered_!) past, the caustic magic causing Apple's protective shield to thin, and the princess to attempt an open-mouthed sob around the pain in her torso. Flinching further back into the rocky ground where she felt-…

There was something in her pocket! Something she had grabbed before-…

Hastily retrieving Bunny's phone was a challenge given the state of her fingers, but the pain mattered little in comparison to the overwhelming amount of desperation she felt, the panicked instinctual need to call out for help, to not die alone, cold, and scared.

She wanted Raven. She wanted Raven so badly right now. The witch always made Apple feel safe when the world turned on its head and she needed to see the witch… and maybe Raven might be able to save her? Maybe? Oh please, please, please let it be so.

Alistair gaped and nearly swore when his face popped up on the screen. Several other familiar pairs of eyes peered around him, and most of them didn't bother to deter _their_ swear words.

"Help." Apple croaked.

XXX

"I'm coming Apple!" Maddie promised, immediately snatching up a different bloodied cloth and applying it haphazardly to a spot above her left eyebrow. The skin started to tingle immediately with the feeling of Raven's magic, which also forced the girl to cling to the wall for a moment because… she could feel a whole lot of thing right now, and most of them weren't even coming from her own mind! "I'm coming, just sit tight, and tell us… show us as much as you can about where you are."

"Apple?" Raven perked up worriedly. "Is she alright?"

"No." Maddie informed truthfully before Lizzie had the chance to formulate an adequate lie. "But that's about to change in a second as long as I've got a say innit. Apple, can you tell me exactly what you did with the clouds?"

Apple inhaled shakily, trying in vain to sniff back the flow of blood from her nose. "Re-remember when we traveled to Wonderland that time? When Raven freed you guys from the-… well the illusion of a curse… though she took out the quarantine too…"

"She summoned my mother's illusions from the other realms. She knows that spell forwards and back, she used to spend hours studying it." Raven realized looking out the front windows in horrified awe. "She summoned all of them."

"I summoned her illusions." Apple confirmed, apparently not being able to hear Raven's voice over all of the yelling, occasionally the girl's battered features were illuminated by a green of orange flair of light. Horrifying shadowed silhouettes from the battle field appeared in glimpses on the rock behind her. "And then I took out my spellbook and read all the protection spells I could find, and then read some more. She- my mother won't leave without me. She needs an heir to the throne- or well I guess she still thinks that she does, I don't even know anymore…"

Apple visibly shivered at the unspoken notion of what might happen once Snow White realizes that she didn't have to have an heir- an unknown factor that was increasingly difficult to control the more the child grew up- not now that she was so darn terrifying all on her own, if anybody questioned her on it the woman could just… silence the protests. Permanently.

"But she can't last like this forever." There was a strange, resigned determination to the princess's tone. "The spells she's using are going to burn her up right? She- it doesn't even look like my mother anymore, I- I think that she's losing focus, losing her grip on it. See?"

Apple turns the phone towards said woman and the sight…

It would be inaccurate to say that Snow White had turned into a horrendous creature with a burned husk for a body, and was currently twisting around in a grotesque manner with rather worryingly scary magical flames dancing all around her to match the tempo of her undead minions dancing around her in a sort of macabre fighting death dance.

On the contrary at the moment Snow White's skin was so pale that a pile consisting of trillions of shaved ice flakes would be jealous, appearing as smooth and soft as a love child between a porcelain vase and a cup of flower petals. Her lips held true to the color of blood, so much so in fact that she looked like she had a bloodied, gaping incision around the opening of her mouth instead of natural flesh, all swollen yet sculpted into an aesthetically pleasing shape… when she wasn't screaming with her pearly white, sharpened teeth bared front and center of course.

And then there was her hair, which had grown darker in more than just color, in fact the term "dark" in regards to color would be the last thing someone might attribute to the mass. The way the woman's mane twirled and floated in the air like greasy ink would if dropped into a water glass invoked comparisons between it and the things that _hide_ in the dark of the night, out of the corners of frightened children's eyes after sneakily watching a horror film they were _expressly_ told _not to_ _watch_ , then suffering from a bad a night terror later that night, only to wake and be greeted by the unfortunate circumstance of the night light bulb burning out. _That_ was what her hair looked like.

She had appeared to de-age a good bit as well somehow, though how wasn't exactly clear, she was still the same tall height, still was screaming and howling like a wild animal on drugs, but… there was something, in the combination of the inky smoke streaming out of her eyes making it look as though the sockets were a fair bit bigger, plus the way her skin was inhumanly smooth, and the crazed way she was moving around, did make her appear lots younger… sort of. It was in a macabre… possessed-corpse-doll version of eternal youth, sort of way, not something that could be easily described but known immediately once seen.

Currently the woman was technically the very definition of what a Snow White was supposed to look like, and she was very beautiful indeed… though it would take a very specific sort to call her attractive, after all lots of people could call a monstrous, poisonous leviathan snake from the sea beautiful, but no one (hopefully!) would actually be attracted (romantically, lustfully, or otherwise) to the creature!

And the same thing currently went for Snow White, who was only attractive to see in the same way two trains carrying fireworks and flammable liquids colliding were attractive to see; so terribly horrible that you just can't look away.

…Unless of course you had a thing for necrophilia and people who looked younger than the legal age of consent… added to a pyromaniac, and someone who found getting their face melted off by a vengeful demonic spirit titillating. That would be the kind of person who would find Snow White, in her current state, attractive.

But she was still beautiful… Though she was also currently twisting around in a grotesque manner with rather worryingly scary magical flames dancing all around to match the tempo of her undead minions dancing around her in a sort of macabre fighting death dance, but at least she still fit the _visual_ definition of a Snow White.

"Ew sweet merciful heavens." Kitty made a face.

"Do you think that you can manage to crawl your way out of the line of fire?" Maddie asked immediately, taking note of the surrounding area that was shown on screen. "like behind a rock or a hill so that someone can get close enough to snatch you up to safety?"

"I-…" Apple turned the phone back around as best she could, biting her lip in hesitation. "I-I can try? Everything hurts but-… my shields are being eaten away a-and she's burning everything! A-and-…!"

"Shh, hush, it's okay, I know that it's super scary right now." Maddie attempted to soothe. "Just… inhale slowly for me alright? Good. Now hold it for a few seconds and exhale. Just keep doing that Apple, until you calm down enough to move, I'll be here the whole time okay? Don't-… don't look at her, focus on finding areas with some cover, okay? Just focus on surviving. Nothing else matters right now. There will be time for you to mourn her once you are safe and sound."

Apple swallowed painfully. "I-I don't know if I-" A high pitched cackling laugh followed by a loud explosion of green light and smoke interrupted her. "Never mind, I'll… yes I think this way."

Apple began to drag herself away, pain flaring up everywhere, but that was a secondary concern to the sudden need to move one forearm over the other's and using the traction of the battered hill to better move away from the maddened cackling behind her.

XXX

Red light, red night, haze of smoke in the sky, there was a hole in her heart and she didn't know why.

Her little princess, such an ungrateful brat, no sense of timing, no sense of obedience.

Dance of death, dance, dance, dance, her loyal servants go, around, and around their mistress, their Queen. And fall, fall, fall these fools shall bow before her perfected birthright, beg for mercy they shall for their insolence to their one true Queen.

And smite them down she shall for their attempt to rise above their station, to rise above her! She'll smite them down and swipe, swipe, swipe until the ground stains red as-… as…

Clawstorm…

The thought catches, like a snag upon delicate lace, ripping open to spill out memories… many, many memories… memories that she had always tried to forget-…

 **Hair Dark as night** … softer than hers despite her best efforts to emulate the sleek silk that she runs her fingers through in the secret hours of the night. Often perfumed by exquisite soaps from the witch's homeland, and brushed to a high gloss under the watchful eye of her overprotective roommate, to the point to where the moonlight almost looks as though it has turned to a liquid upon dark silk.

 **Skin** much **Pale** r than her own, but it was still of a warmer shade, more comparable to pale hues of rose petals and, in some places, the texture matched the same comparison **As** the feel of soft flower's petals, only getting prettier when graced by delicate blushing reactions towards both pleasure and frustration. But still far from being the right shade of pale in comparison to **Snow**. Something that spared the witch from her ire on more than one occasion, when her attempts to use powders and potions to make her own skin attain the much sought after light hue did not turn out nearly as well, or when the witch got too overemotional and cried, and begged her princess not to undergo the painful surgery that would bleach her skin tone into perfection.

Back then the witch always got irrational when she tried to change herself for the better. **Naïve** , she had called such overwhelming **Innocence** , the witch always insisting that she was just right as she was, always far too **Kind** for what she was supposed to become when they were together, always far too **Gentle** of a creature in general to be **Honest** , even though the witch loathed being compared as such. Apparently all the same compliments that **Maiden** s and **Princess** es received were used as derogatory terms in regards to her mind's condition, she had always found this fact to be a mixture of oddity and genius, using nice words to be insults. An acceptable form for a **Snow White** to… to…

It… it had gotten ugly after the witch had left her life, had stayed ugly even when she had tried to get the witch back. Clawstorm… had lived up to her name ironically, instead of being the confused witchling that was always just so… fearlessly unimpressed with most everybody at the school, and all the idiotic social things that made her swear up and down that she was thankful for being born a villain so that she could have an excuse to avoid all of that nonsense (the stupid, stupid nonsense that she herself agreed with the witch on the front of… not wanting to have to play interested to the same idiotic things as well)…

Clawstorm had grown some serious **_Claws_** since giving birth to her baby, had not come to Snow White in a rush of tantrums and adorable half-threats to like… glitter-bomb all of Charming's clothes, or set fire to the finance minister, but had not come directly to her at all and instead swept everywhere else up like a **_Storm_**! Literally in certain respects…

She had been magnificent in her fury, a true manifestation of an Evil Queen, not just in title or in pretend, but a true divine mortal personification! She had never been more awed by Clawstorm, never had been more impressed, …or more proud.

She had never felt so lonely before either.

Clawstorm had never come back to her as she had intended, despite all of her flexing and demonstrations of raw power, Clawstorm had never demanded to see her, had never confronted her, she had…

It felt as if she had forgotten all about her, leaving her alone, to deal with her life all by herself.

Left her to her unhappily ever after.

So she had done everything that she could to drag Clawstorm back, waited years for the day that Clawstorm demanded her wardens to give her an audience with Snowy, her princess, her queen. She had waited and waited, ordering that Clawstorm be locked up at their old school, the place where they had… been close, baiting that ghastly man that dared call himself Clawstorm's husband and lover, outwardly condemned the witch's precious homeland, the place that had demanded all of Clawstorm's attentions because it just could not… let her go! The place where she had met that joke Good King! The place that was so far from Ever After and everything that Snowy-… that they had once-….

It was… so far away, she had wanted to go, wanted to just… show up, demand all of Clawstorm's attentions once again but-… that would have been suspicious. Undignified for what a Snow White, to try to catch the attentions of her rival and ancestral nemesis. No. She had… just assumed that Clawstorm would come back, would find some lame half-thought-out excuse to come back to Ever After. They- what they had just… it shouldn't have been nearly so easy for Clawstorm to just… stay away forever!

…She hadn't meant it when she had said that it couldn't last. It… I-it had just been the proper thing to say at the time! Clawstorm wasn't actually supposed to… take her seriously on that… well okay, maybe she had been pretty serious at the time, thinking that the fairytale was magically going to change her into the Snow White in every way including the name. She had counted on it in fact! She had been promised a lifetime of happiness and the ability to fall madly in love with the most perfect prince in her class! She had counted on the fairytale magic doing its job!

But that hadn't happened.

And Clawstorm had kept her word, and had never come back. Not for her sake at least. None of it was for her. For her family, kingdom, sense of pride as a villain… none of it for little old Snowy though, that had been made clear at the Dragon Games and Clawstorm had-… she'd never seen Clawstorm so _serious_ before! It was breathtaking to see her in her element, to see the genius behind the disability, the raw power showing just how powerful she really was, for once completely uninhibited by proper social constructs.

And it had all been for Raven, Clawstorm's baby girl, her greatest pride, one of the few things that she loves the most in this world.

All for Raven, all to protect Raven's happiness, not Snowy's.

She had, in the past, even dared to make a swipe or two towards little Raven, for being part of the reason why Clawstorm stayed so irritatingly faithful to that- that imbecile King, and taking after him in personality as well, with the whole impudence of turning her back on destiny and-…

But she looked so much like Clawstorm, had her mother's magic, she-… it pained Snowy greatly to even think it, but in many ways little Raven was like a Snow White _and_ Evil Queen mixture; her powers inherited from her mother making her as non-human and formidable as they come, and yet it was her appearance… her entire attitude to want to stand up and be a good person just because she thought it was only the right thing to do, it was… maidenly in a way, far more than what Apple could achieve on a good day. Where Apple was weak in having a proper head in ruling things, and the complex art of politely compromising and haggling until you got exactly what you wanted in the end… Raven excelled in those. Subjects which were essential for becoming a true maiden character set to inherit a throne.

Snowy hated her for it. Why did Clawstorm birth the child that was not only perfect in appearance but also in temperament? Raven was rough around the edges for certain, but Snowy was far from stupid in not being able to see real potential for maidening in the witch. It hurt her to even see Raven up close for too long, the child with the perfect blend of Clawstorm and… all the things that she was promised Apple was supposed to become. A perfect maiden. A Snow White.

In the beginning the witchling was little more than an annoyance and need for a decent heir… but as the girl grew up Snow White's opinion had softened somewhat, and despite her hatred of where half of the girl's genes came from, she… she didn't know what to think, so she stayed back… for the most part. The Dragon Games only confirmed these uncomfortable suspicions of maiden potential (despite the bit of hero-ing as well), and it hurt. It hurt so much to see the child that she had been denied, it hurt that Clawstorm never even tried to share…

And it was because of this, these… almost thoughts of "what if's" and a family that she would have preferred to have, that Snow White, despite her torn feelings on the subject, had tried to save Raven. Save her last tiny tie to Clawstorm- and she would have taken good care of the girl- she would have broken her of her father's hold and used her to save Clawstorm as well! Bring Clawstorm back, and Apple had always wanted a sibling! Something she did not dare try herself for she'd sworn to never let Charming touch her ever again after that disastrous wedding night! And Clawstorm would have sought revenge to all that opposed them, and little Raven could be brought up proper and civilized, and Snowy would be a million times better at parenting the girl than that… King. Oh there would be much to do with Charming out of the way, and **Poison** ing a certain **Apple** to take great care of, they'd need time to find her a new suiter to wake her up! She'd be comatose for a while, but then again it would be for the best really; Apple was such a little trouble maker these days it was sadly the only way a mother could keep an eye on her!

She had obviously inherited more of her father's bad habits than disappointing appearances. A pity that Charming had lied about his usefulness in producing a proper heir, obviously he had been a less than favorable option for proper breeding stock. But oh well, it wasn't as if she could start over with another one to raise from a blank slate, she be far too busy! And while Apple wasn't perfect, she was… good enough.

Because while Apple was sleeping and Clawstorm was raging in her name, there would be a little witchling to train, and oh, how the Wonderlandians and worlds would tremble with little Raven sitting obediently by her throne, learning from her mother how to quell insolence with raw power, and learning from her how to become a proper lady and Queen. There was no choice really, since Apple was so disappointingly inept at the things that mattered the most.

Just like her father.

Truly it was fortunate that Snow White had, after exhausted research, found a vessel of power that had once belonged to some great magical-user, who followed some powerful cult worshiping some man named Cain. She'd probably never would have summoned up the courage to rid herself of the pathetic man if she had not gained the power to get that nasty job over very quickly. She'd dreamed about it plenty of times, but was too tied up with her duty as a Snow White and the overwhelming responsibilities the name came with to ever rid herself of him.

But with Cain's power she was finally free to do as she pleased at last, no one would dare look down their noses at her now! She'd put everything to rights and get the happily ever after that she'd been so-very-long denied!

No one will dare try to take it away, she'd see to it.

There were other bits in her research that referenced some hero called Beowulf, and all these children Cain had that had an ongoing rivalry with Beowulf, but it wasn't a fairytale, and she was running short on time with Wonderland snatching little Raven up for their story, so Snow White didn't care much to look in too closely at the lore. She'd do that later when there was plenty of time.

Apple's future prince though… was going to take a lot of time to find, a lad of both proper breeding traits and instilled with the proper loyalties to his mothers-in-law to keep Apple's ill-bred tendencies in line.

But Raven, she had high hopes for Raven, the girl could never become a proper Snow White of course, wrong mixture of birth parents, but she could do well in picking up in the places that Apple slacks on.

A perfect mixture of both herself and Clawstorm. The dutiful child that Snow White deserved to have after so many disappointments, and the child would be dutiful, there was no choice really. She had everything all lined up back at the castle: a room, tutors, medicines and security to keep the girl from using her powers and escaping, and of course there would be Clawstor-

… _Clawstorm_ …

 _Oh_ … _she had forgotten hadn't she_ …

 _O-oh dear_ … _Clawstorm couldn't because she_ -… _she_ … _she_ …!

The fantasy collapsed, her chest she realized was aching, red spots threatened to dot her vision, and then there was darkness, and green fire as her mind slipped, slipped, slipped further away…

And then there was horrible pain, her chest felt as though there was a string tightening and pulling like being garroted and dragged forwards at the same time, everything narrowed for a terrible instant of inhumanly cruel pain, narrowing to a feverish pinpoint-…

Her chest felt as though it had exploded and her inner voice gave up on following the plot.

XXX

"Can we catch a beading on her?" Maddie demanded to the room at large.

Chase murmured into his comm. unit, then paused as he listened. "We got her in our sights." The boy nodded moving to retrieve his helmet. "Ground says she doth be moving towards a secure spot. Two, maybe three can be transported down to retrieve her."

"Good." Maddie turned sharply to the remaining witch troops. "Two of you. With me. The second she's cleared. Understood?"

"Maddie!" Raven cried out in alarm. "It's dangerous!"

"I know Raven." Maddie's voice softened, kneeling down to take the witch's face into her hands. "But we should have done more to consider Apple's tendency to get herself into the middle of trouble." Never mind the fact that she was- Maddie privately acknowledged with clawing guilt- the one responsible for Blondie being out there in the first place, and not even a few hours ago she had been thinking some very uncharitable things towards Apple. Things that were probably unfounded and fueled more by patriotism than looking at the bigger picture…

Looking at Raven's petrified expression, Maddie realized that she probably should have listened to the witch better when she tried to explain Apple's psychosis. It probably would have at least spared Apple from this horror and Raven from her paralyzing worry.

"But you're my sister!" The witch sobbed in despair.

"Yes I am. And she is the one you love." Maddie nodded curtly. "So let me do what any good big sister would do and make sure we both come back alive and away from this terror in the twilight."

Raven, unable to help herself burst into tears.


	29. Chapter 29

Clawstorm never fathomed that breathing could get this difficult, not even when she had been in labor with her firstborn (which up till now had been the single-most physically excruciating experience of her life) had she this much difficulties. It had nothing to do with the ache around her heart either, it was just that when her lungs deflated they just… wouldn't unlock to inflate, not easily at any rate. The healers that were with them were taking care of that bit, thankfully, though for a long moment she couldn't inhale nearly as deeply as she'd like, or what her body was accustomed to.

Which sucked doubly because her back had been sliced open not even twenty or so minutes ago, and all the places where her skin had cracked and seared open in little tiny fissures from that damned-… she itched in some places, ached in others, and the parts of her that they'd drugged up to be numb weren't making her feel better at all.

At least the healers and the young demigoddess (since when did her old pompous fairytale elite school let in spawn of gods of love? Royalty didn't believe in actual love! …Not really at any rate…) had re-setup that spell to keep Snowball from leaching off of her too much, which was nice and everything except for the fact that it didn't seem to be cutting the bitch off completely right at the moment and… well…

…She could still feel Snowball, faintly, somewhere in the ether of her core, just enough to make breathing so damn difficult, trying to reach through, trying to pull at this… this aweful bond that was still stretched between hem and-…

It was actually pretty terrifying, okay? She was actually scared of a maiden! She may have started spilling tears out of her eyes, maybe she had even managed to gasp a few pathetic phrases or words out, she honestly didn't know for sure really. The roaring in her ears and the pushing blackness threatening to overcome her vision were really, kind of disorienting, and distracting, it was that too.

Her hands felt a bit cold and there wasn't much feeling to them right now, but there was a pressure cradled firmly around her fingers, and she could feel long dry fingers worrying the hair away from her face, that was Giles, she could tell that much. He always used to do that, even in the hallways with hundreds of witnesses, but especially when there was no one around except his brother, always careful, always kind… her mother never squandered in her physical affections towards her, she tried her best, even when physical touch was just too much most of the time, but at school being Evil could be trying at times. No one wanted to touch her without a good reason (even Snowball, and her reasons were always so obvious the second she could get the two of them alone), affection just… wasn't a thing for future villains, well not openly at any rate.

That was where Giles used to come in, making the world feel a little less… bleak, a bit more grounded, even when it embarrassed her she never threw him off, he was her mentor after all, she respected him, cared about him just as much as she did his brother, and if him gathering her up into a hug that she didn't flinch or flair up from made her feel like she had just overcome a great feat, and won the prize, then no one need know.

There was also a pressure on her opposite shoulder, with a barely felt staccato rhythm of nervous, thick fingers tapping and grasping over the joint, just like how Milton Grimm (he used to insist that she call him by his given name back in school, when it was just her and the two brothers, her mentors…) used to do whenever he went over her report card, or after she had participated in some villain competition and was waiting for the results (the only competitions she could win, since Snowball would've had her raked over the coals if she had actually, tried to win at anything the other was competing in, without her princess's express permission first at least)…

Or when she sometimes became so ill, from either some viral bug or, very occasionally, when her… _condition_ had acted up (often leaving her in a huddled mass on the floor, as though she had just gone through a seizure) and she had to be sent to the healer's offices. He'd be there, sitting beside her bed when she woke up, telling her about what excuse he'd made up to cover for her "outbursts" (always some brilliant bit about attempting some advanced magical trick-gone-awry), or clinically telling her about what bug she'd caught this time around, reminding her of her strong genes and her duty to pull through unscathed by some mere illness.

She'd sought out his approval more than she had Giles, simply because Giles always seemed to be proud of her, but Milton Grimm was always a tough cookie when it came to receiving praise that wasn't followed by a: _I'm confident that you can outdo yourself next time_. But it was never so rare that she'd ever really worried about disappointing him, he had promised her to teach the skills she'd need to be the best there ever was, and she had wanted so badly to overcome her limitations that she had gone after the opportunity like a baby dragon to its first bit of acquired treasure. Her determination and refusal to ever give up, to do anything that was not a hundred and ten percent at least, always seemed to please him for some reason.

It was… odd, at least that's what Simone, her roommate, used to say. Since Clawstorm was just a student and not a blood relative, her old (secret) friend had actually been pretty worried about two old guys taking such an interest in a little girl like her, a worry that had confused Clawstorm for a long time (with all the talk about abuse of power, using her for some nefarious gain, and so forth), not even the kind of worry that could've been misunderstood as jealousy (which had been Clawstorm's first guess, if it weren't for the fact that Simone was pretty insistent that she carry around pepper spray, secretly record all of her sessions, and learn how to use a battle ax) until Simone had finally caved in and told her.

Which had ended up with Clawstorm feeling deeply disturbed, and vowing for a way to safely bleach her brain, and also telling her overly concerned roommate off for even suggesting that she wouldn't skin the hide off of anybody who dared bloody tried!

It didn't keep Simone's mother-henning off for a minute though it did seem to calm her friend down a skootch.

There were a lot of secrets that she'd ended up keeping from everybody else now that she thought about it…

But none kept from Raphael, none save for her relationship with Snowball, and he had loved her enough to forgive her for that one secret once he found out, had told her that he would never bow away from their marriage just because fate said that she was intended for someone else. If she didn't want Snowball anymore then he was going to hold on for as long as he lived. And Raven, her little baby, had only shrugged and said that there was nothing about royalty that surprised her, and that a family of choice meant far more to her than a family that fate had tried to force on them all.

The Hatter fellow and Raven's adopted sister, they were alright as well, didn't even breath one word about One True Love, or any of that type of thing. The Hatter especially seemed to think the whole mess as bloody stupid actually, just as much as she did actually, which they'd both figured was a part of their cultures allowing for harems and multiple marriages, having just one person destined to make you happy would sound idiotic to anyone with that kind of background.

And little Apple… maybe she should take a page from Snowball's scheme and steal the girl away from blasted Ever After, never to be returned. The kid was too bright, too clever to be a Snow White, she was the sort who was better suited more for inquiring about the mechanics of the worlds, little academic fiddly bits that explain how the planets go round, or how magic actually works. Not at all suited to be a maidenly princess, despite her best efforts it is not something that could ever, actually make her happy. There were very big differences between _acting it out_ and _living to the fullest_.

There would be more opportunities for the girl practically anywhere else than Ever After, it didn't have to be under the Queen-King family protection either; not as long as the child had better access to a rounded education, a safe place to call home, and a strong support network. She'd be more than fine if given that much, if she were given _options_ instead of thoughtless orders.

And she had Raven. Apple had always had Raven from the beginning it would seem. Her daughter may have tried to cut all ties as best she was able, and at one point Apple may have attempted to bring herself to hate her daughter with equal determination, but it obviously hadn't worked. Too much caring, she suspected, too much love as well.

A far better bond than their predecessors. Now the only matter was stepping back and seeing what they'd do with it. How they'd shape it. Grow it. It was there to do with as they wanted.

It was… nice knowing that she had a family that she was able to come back to now…

There was an audible snap in the back of her mind, and then everything immediately loosened and settled back into place inside, almost as though someone had let go of a rope-

Or it had snapped on its own…

Suddenly she found the ability to breathe again. The ache in her chest subsiding down into nothing. Mind clearing like a cold stream of clean water cutting through the muck.

Her skin still itched here and there though, in the places where the surface broke, and where the local anesthetics didn't reach, which was… oddly a relief? Like… it was irritating as hell, but at the moment she was so happy to be breathing again that she temporarily welcomed the feeling reminding her that, yes, she was still alive and kicking.

Though she still couldn't help but imagine the broken nerves screeching: _ow, ow, ow!_ In itty bitty voices. Which also boded well if she could think clearly enough to wonder about just how irritating healing all of those little suckers was going to be in the long run.

She breathed in greedily, once, twice, and several times again for good measure, before bothering to pay attention to what her other senses were telling her.

"Good girl, good girl child. That's it's dear, keep breathing, keep breathing little one."

Bloodshot eyes crack open to see Giles's tearful smile… the man looks… relieved. For some reason. She's too tired to think too much about it though.

"Keep breathing dear. You're safe now. Hush little one, welcome back."

XXX

"Oy gods… that's not pretty." Alice winced half-covering her face with her- one bandaged, one gloved- hands.

"The lady speakith with utmost clarity." The Hatter mumbled looking a tad peaky himself.

Lady Cheshire stared dubiously down at the still-recording device in her hands, contemplating between the worse of the two evils: dying without documentation, reminding future idiots with _ideas_ of what becomes of those who might be tempted to follow Snow White's bloody footsteps…

Or… turning the camera away, because she didn't know who was watching this and while her personal morals were forever sketchy on purpose… she couldn't help but wonder if some kid was watching this. There was some messed up crap going on here that was certain to leave an adult with nightmares, a child would be completely…

Well anybody would be scarred for life by seeing this, there was no distinction between age when it came to seeing horrific dark rituals and body mutilation… and stuff. Young or old, it would still be bad to see.

But far worse to experience in person.

With that thought in mind she continued to film, to broadcast, to anybody willing to listen in on what may be their last stand.

That and she figured that it'd serve those Ever After bastards right seeing just exactly _what_ they had been so blindly supporting. The stupid, stupid idiots who fell for all the pageantry and glitter while refusing to think for themselves, and for the unruly children of Wonderland, to look upon this horror, to cheer with reluctant hope at the enemy princess's valiant attempt to put a stop to it, to remember that war and battle was all about terrible, unspeakable, never-to-be-healed-from wounds and not in the least about honor or big talk.

It'd be good at the very least to frighten some _sense_ into the fools.

That and this was also like a massive collision of two trains on one track and an elephant in the middle, even she couldn't look away-

Hey was that teeny tiny Madeline?

XXX

There was a gaping hole in Snow White's chest Maddie noted with a disgusted grimace, and that, right there, standing up ahead of them- in all her supernatural, nearly naked glory- was one big **_Nope_** in a frilly ripped white dress and sequins.

 _Eugh_. That was one mental image diamond, which wasn't going to be sandpapered out of her brain, at all easily. Or anytime soon. It was a good thing that being part of the court came with hazard benefits and that becoming an almost official princess (the ceremony to make her Raven's official sister, head matriarch of house while Raven was off being the King of Hearts, and emergency successor to the Queen throne only, had been scheduled to be performed after their story. A sort of exchange: Wonderland adopted Raven, Witch Kings would adopt Maddie). Meant that she was allowed to be disturbed by the memories in public.

She could act all twitchy and shuddery to her little heart's content after getting an eyeful of the woman's bared (and gaping wide open) chest oozing a river of blackened blood, tainted by the burn of the hex, with little skeletal husks in greasy beards twirling in circles around Snow White's feet.

Not that she was going to be sticking around long enough to personally witness how this all plays out, she amended to herself as she met Apple half-way, really she was getting the minimum most exposure here, despite the fantastically gory sight. And Apple was too busy focusing on staring strictly straight ahead, keeping her head down as she army crawled it double time into Maddie's firm, albeit slightly shaking, hug. The Hatter-girl having enough sense to keep Apple from looking back at the monstrosity that used to be the blonde princess's mother, with hope she hadn't seen the whole chest explosion bit.

Oh dear gods Maddie hoped that she hadn't seen that.

Though… Ironically enough the woman did resemble the literal definition of a Snow White, Maddie mused rather deliriously to herself just as the rest of the rescue team descended upon them and the battlefield was blocked by a wave of sparkly purple clouds, swirling all around them, taking them to safety at last.

XXX

 _Clawstorm?_

It was very dark here, dull too, everything cast in shadows and shades of grey, as if all the color and love in the world had been sucked dry, leaving nothing but… shapes. Thick clouds of shadowy fog swirling around her bare feet and the hem of her nightgown.

 _Where are you?_

She felt… small. And not the type of small that one feels after finding out that a fairytale happily ever after is far from being nearly as great or grand as she had been promised. Though there was quite a bit of that feeling as well… she most felt… as though she were a child again. Literally small instead of metaphorically. Like… like…

Like the age she had been when she had first spotted Clawstorm. So many years ago. The trip the Evil Queen at the time had taken to check up on her mother, the parties and fanfare that had followed immediately after in the Queen family's honor…

Clawstorm had seemed so amazing, so regal and soft in a mischievous childlike sort of way.

 _Why won't you come when I call?_

She loved her, always had. Clawstorm forever bigger than life and she always striving to become just as big, just as timeless as she had always seem Clawstorm.

They had met in the garden orchard that day, with the apple trees in full, heavy bloom, Clawstorm had hidden in protest to being forced to socialize. But Snowball had found her, hidden between branches and petals, where the sun cast dancing shadows on the warm, perfumed earth.

And she had chased, and laughed, and had fallen in love.

 _Where did I last see you?_

A mirror she thinks, the mirror, Clawstorm's mirror, the place where Clawstorm would forever parallel Snow White. A poetic beauty that was theirs alone to share.

 _I love you. Let's stay together forever and ever._

She walked on ground that felt so uneven. There were distant noises, like a hundred people shouting, but that soon dimmed in comparison to her determined mission. She walked forward, heedless to occasionally stumbling and tripping over things unseen in the dark mist. Fireflies set alight with burning green hues dancing, always and forever dancing around her. Helping her search. Her minions. Her companions till the end of her time in this world.

 _I'll search high and low forever until I find you._

A jolt and the feeling of smooth terrain under her feet indicated that she might be in a… more suitable place. A place full of mirrors looking out at everyone and everything.

A place where Clawstorm was kept. The perfect parallel to where Snowball had been kept. A world of wilderness, and mirrors, and darkness, and freedoms… in contrast to a world of walls, and reflections, and too much light to hide anything, and… duties.

Perfect contrasts, forever looking out at each other…

Perfect. Because they were perfect.

 _I love you. Let's find each other in the garden where we first met. I love you. I've always loved you. Be mine. Forever._

 _Forever and ever after._


	30. Chapter 30

A silence fell upon the battlefield.

Which was normally not a good thing, in fact it was something to be avoided at all costs, because when dead silence fell in the middle of any fight it meant something very bad was about to happen.

Well… usually it meant that, however in this case the silence was not that of intense malice, in this case the silence was just…

Confounded. Confused. Baffled even.

Which arguably was even more dangerous since a Wonderlandian who was so frothed up for battle they couldn't even walk right did not take kindly to switching back into a subdued state where thinking complex things was easier.

"Did she… just seal herself into the mirror dimension?"

Goldie Lockes cuddled with ferocious bears as if they were nothing but overgrown puppies so she could be forgiven for breaking the silence first. She had her own special kind of madness that many Wonderlandians did not feel inclined to cross since they were more of the sort who fought against giant man-eating animals, not generally the type to snuggle with them over tea and honey.

"She bleeding well did!" Little Red Riding Hood glared at the now completely repaired mirror with dangerously narrowed eyes. "Saw she was outnumbered and outsmarted no doubt and fled to avoid the consequences!" She spat with spite, at her side three very big wolves regarded said mirror with similar looks.

A few soldiers edged away slightly. Little Red was said to have married and spawned with a werewolf, and from the looks of things she was the Alpha of the pack, making her practically in the same category of the beasts, and also not one to mess with or snap at.

Finally, a figure that had been previously overlooked stepped regally out of the shadows, her presence doing as good of a job to jolt everybody out of their confused edge of rage as a large bucket of ice water being poured down their shirts, in fact several people ended up falling over in shock, seeing the Queen Mother so close and wearing pants no less!

"The grounds of the school and the outlying areas of the battlefield need to be searched thoroughly for dwarf corpses, undead or simply burned out husks, it does not matter. They are a magical hazard as well as a reminder of a horrific day that no child or Wonderlandian citizen should need to stumble upon when things go back to times of peace! Generals you will need to choose several of your most trusted troops and tougher magic-bearers to accompany the Charming's army and the Thorn Clan's Guard back up to Ever After's royal palace for a long term stay in order to aide them in cleaning up the massacre there as well as to investigate, and decontaminate everything that our enemy has touched!"

The Queen Mother cast a chilled look at the mirror that Snow White had disappeared into. "Early reports state that Snow White may end up burning herself out now that the Dark Good Queen Clawstorm, Mother of your King has banished the connection between them. With no magic to leech off of her the enemy has as good signed her own execution papers."

"Is she alright your highness-ship?" A Mad Hatter questioned almost fretfully. "Do you know of Dark Lady Clawstorm's wellness-fate?"

At that the Queen Mother turned to the man with a proud gleam in her eye and a feral grin. "She has defeated the True Love Bond; she will need time to recover, but last I heard the Dark Good Queen had a look of Wonderlandian madness in her eyes and was cracking jokes about taking a bath and sleeping in a real bed the second she come home with us!"

At that there was a murmur of chuckling and relaxing of shoulders. A good sign that, it meant that the Dark Good Queen was probably one of them after all since that was what every soldier wanted after a battle or a quest!

"Go to them old friend." The Queen Mother murmured in a quieter tone. "They're going to need you by their sides right now."

As the Senior Mad Hatter took off the Queen Mother squared her shoulders and continued addressing the troops. Dividing large swaths of the assembled warriors and giving them things to do for the next few days or weeks or so, keeping them busy, keeping them on their toes, keeping them from grouping up en' mass and letting the mob mentality take over upon the innocent and clueless people of Ever After.

Knowing how to use a bludgeon in battle was one thing, but in Wonderland, the people who got to become rulers and stay on the throne were the ones who could use their words. Say things in just the right tone of voice, the right context and you had the difference between a group of stirring mad thugs ready to tear apart the world until the fire in their bellies were sated…

Or you could separate them into manageable groups and make them go on a massive patriotic scavenger hunt. Make them sneer, laugh, and point at mirrors as they discover yet another dwarf corpse, make them sober up once they've laid eyes upon the massacre in Ever After's castle and have them be too overcome by grief-stricken family and friends to even get the chance to see Ever After natives as inhuman, put their energies to good use as they help with their own injured and the terrified students that had just evacuated a once safe school.

Give the heat in their bellies some cooling water of awareness, of other people, and soon you will get back your proud, patriotic army who dresses smartly and moves in aesthetically pleasing formations to best represent your country.

Better to have an ideal to prance around harmlessly than to have the savage beasts of war and blood lust running about unchecked.

And with a few words she could do this, because she was bred to be a survivor who lived to see old age, not through battles, but through keeping her people from becoming violently destructive. Just as her daughter had been trained, just as their ancestors have been trained, because turning a ferocious mob on the brink of action into a series of smaller work-groups happily doing their patriotic duty by immediately being sent out for damage control, lots and lots of damage control… that was a neat trick. A skill of survival that no ruler goes without for long.

 _A Headless Ally,_ or _Headless Boulevards_ weren't just a silly name for areas all over Wonderland in honor of Alice's story after all… in fact those areas were several hundred years older than the story and with extensive catacombs underneath most (a few had them above ground and right in the open). A historical reminder of the darker history behind the wonder and all the tea, and while she too desired to see Wonderland rise up in vicious revenge from the ashes of their humiliation… she did not desire to see her daughter be placed in any danger due to war. Not now. Not when her Lizzie was currently the Queen. An open target too easily wiped out from the cusp of life by a well-aimed arrow, her training could only take Lizzie so far after all: neither she or her daughter or the past three generations had actually seen any big wars.

And she wasn't keen on breaking that line of peace now.

"Well, that was nerve-racking." Lady Huntsman slumped against a walls after the Wonderlandian troops dissipated.

"Indeed." The Queen Mother looked around, searching for any eavesdroppers she wouldn't approve of. It was clear that the others were left fairly wary from the overall feeling of pent-up violence still left in her warriors, and that they all needed to vent a bit perhaps. The Good King sure did after they'd released intelligence about Snow White's evil manipulations to the general public, the level of hostility given towards the White family and Ever after as a whole had rattled him.

It ended up being a cultural difference that was very difficult to explain; why Wonderland could accept Raven as a non-threat and as their savior but not extend their collective indifference or understanding towards Ever after. She'd guessed that the calls and shouts for war had scared him. It was very painfully difficult for her pride, in the end, to simplify the whole thing down to two basic truths:

One being that Clawstorm Queen wasn't any different, nor less qualified to have assumed a Wonderlandian throne that had actually been seized and fought over for generations. The Wonderlandian people, sadly enough, would have probably been fine with a new person on the throne as long as she did her job and let them keep their stories. Heck a startling majority actually (very quietly) hummed praises to the Evil Queen for making it so that busy bodied foreigners stayed out of Wonderland! They actually reveled in saturating in their own insanity without pesky interlopers coming in and trying to make sense out of everything.

Snow White on the other hand had treated them for fools. And she was very much not a Wonderlandian, at heart (or lack thereof) or otherwise. She was an outsider. A traitor. The enemy in a pretty crown. It didn't help that she both looked and acted like a living reminder of the darkest times in Wonderland history either, back when other worlds (like Ever After ironically enough) had attempted to tame the madness and enslave Wonderland. Back before the fairytales when everybody had been at war.

And it had been pretty clear for many who actually read their history books, that Snow White had wanted to bring back those dark days of death, violence, and misery.

"Just one more thing though: Lady Cheshire you can stop filming now." The Queen Mother ordered. It wouldn't do for a stray comment to be heard by the wrong people.

"Golly gee, I had no idea that this thing was on." The Woman didn't bother trying to look innocent as she shut Blondie's device off and pocketed it. "I certainly do hope that I haven't caused to much trouble with that."

"Somehow I think I doubt that very much." Queen Charming muttered.


	31. Chapter 31

It took a little while longer than what Raven would have preferred, but it had been essential that the Healers saw to Apple first. It was difficult to comply of course, but when Lizzie had taken one glance into the air-ship's emergency healing bay she had sworn quite graphically under her breath, and while holding Raven back from rushing in, she had stated that Maddie was with her, and that Apple was a little dinged up but alive and conscious _. Let the healers do their job Raven, my gods!_ _You standing in a corner and making distressed noises won't help nearly as much as going back to the bridge and making distressed noises at us, where we can all focus on being all comforting while also keeping you out of the Healer's hair!_

There was a tense long while as the healers worked their craft as they flew their way (after a quick call and consultation with Raven's father, who was of the same paranoid mind as Lizzie _and_ Kitty at the moment, and therefore insisted that Apple be put someplace where vengeful individuals towards the White family were less abundant) at top speeds to the Queen clan's ancestral autumn manor and the acers upon acers of well-guarded apple orchards surrounding the estate.

Raven wasn't nearly as certain that Apple would be perfectly happy being surrounded by her namesake given the circumstances, even if she did agree with the other's security concerns.

"I suppose we could always move her if being surrounded by the hexing trees puts her off… once she's healed and the heat dies down a touch…" Raven mumbled to herself after expressing her hesitant concerns regarding the controversial fruit. "But then what would I know about what she'd be fine with? For all I know she'd still love everything that had apples in it and the fact that her mother named her after one wouldn't bother her in the least!"

"She won't be bothered by it until harvest season most likely." Bunny mused, somehow managing to understand Raven's concerns without too much extra explanation. Raven wondered whether it was just a Wonderlandian thing to intuitively tune into Raven's inner mind-workings (for anybody else would have been puzzled as to why Raven would be worried about Apple of all people suddenly being turned off to her namesake), or if the others had been analyzing the princess so much in the past few months that they had also become experts in _The Many Ways of Apple White_ , as Raven had been forced to become after becoming the princess's unwilling roommate.

"I don't think Apple has ever really seen a real apple tree, let alone one in its blossoming stage." Bunny continued to explain. "The White family as a rule does not keep the trees on the properties where they raise their offspring, and Snow White had all of the remaining orchards surrounding the original dwarves' bunkhouse chopped down and replaced by yew trees not long after she had taken the throne. Consequently, just days after your mother married your father."

Raven furrowed her brows in confusion. "But practically everything Apple owned or used was made from the products of apple trees, I've never seen her go a single meal without an apple-something on her plate. She even drank the juice almost exclusively! Even when given the option for water or milk, she'd demand apple juice!"

"But did she ever keep apple blossoms around, or speak fondly of the trees when reminiscing about her childhood?" Bunny asked pointedly. "The same trees that had been in full bloom when her mother first met your mother in that garden they talked about in their letters to one another?"

Raven cocked her head, revelations clicking in her mind. Apples. But not the trees or flowers. The last time Snow White had seen the Evil Queen she had been given an apple. And if Raven's knowledge of seasons and plant cycles were correct (which they would be since she had known the difference between three varieties of apple trees before she even knew how to walk) then the apple trees in Ever After would have been just sprouting the beginnings of leaves, and tiny little flower buds. The trees were not ripe with fruit when their story transpired… when their affair ended.

Because the old queen of Ever After had died prematurely of a "long-standing illness" (since it was just rude to say that she had been severely depressed and not even the then-Evil Queen's best efforts to revive her maiden after the woman fatally ingested nearly a full tub of skin-lightening-cream), and the king had followed soon after (likely by Elenore Queen's own hand (aka the Evil Queen at the time) since Raven's grandmother had zero tolerance for abusive bastards) and that meant that the story of Snow White had to start earlier than normal.

Her father used to talk about the rushed graduation ceremony, and how he had met her mother not long after Clawstorm had been crowned Queen (since Elenore Queen had little choice but to go to ground lest people started making connections between her and the sudden death of Ever After's king), and how her mother had sought out his easy-going company not long after the story had finished. Raven had been born that very summer, and a while later (after much dating and shared custody outings) her parents fell in love and got married.

Apple had been born two months prematurely, Raven had discovered after learning that the princess's birthday was on the first month of the school year and doing some rudimentary mathematics, that or Snow White hadn't been nearly as untouched by man as she had claimed to be on her wedding day, and to be honest Raven would rather not know the specifics. Though she had been told by Apple that it had been a difficult birth, and that Apple had always felt a little guilty that she had been the reason why her mother insisted on not trying for another child, despite her father's desire to have a full gaggle of children running about the palace.

It was… disturbing, if she tilted her thinking and looked at things from the angle of insanity, she could see a certain… logic to Apple's name. Seeing as how everything in Snow White's life revolved and changed around the fruit… and the fact that Apple would have been born when the trees were so full of fruit would have been-…

Raven shook her head to dispel the musings. She had already known more than her fair share about Snow White, and she wasn't too keen on picking apart everything about the woman right then, or ever if the disturbing theories about how the seasonal cycle of a particular tree had anything to do with why the woman might've been willing to surround her daughter by the false promises of what a happily ever after was supposed to result from being poisoned by an apple tree's fruit, but not surround either herself or her daughter with the tree's natural presence in its entirety.

The living plant and the flowers… come to think of it Apple never had apple blossom tea, or perfume. She had been frankly surprised when Raven had, on a few occasions, shown her the samples of different types of apples that grew in Raven's family orchards. Raven often received care packages from her father, and at Raven's request, had packed a variety of different types of apples, and apple products for Raven to give to Apple the princess as a meek means of saying sorry for the whole… Legacy thing.

At the time Raven had joked to Maddie that Apple had acted as tough she had never seen yellow or green versions of the fruit before… but now Raven wondered whether or not Apple actually _had_ known.

Now that she looked at things in another light, Raven was certain now that she had not imagined Apple's eyes nearly falling out of her head when Raven had mentioned that both the King and Queen realms grew around 250 separate varieties of apples _commercially_ on their lands and had nearly 5,000 separate varieties growing wild or non-commercially in the entirety of the kingdoms and their territories as a whole.

Raven hadn't told Apple back then about there being over 7,500 separate varieties of the plants in know existence in their world as a whole, with more being discovered as new dimensions were starting to trade with them, but now she wondered what Apple might make of it now.

Granted her kingdom's apple industry had nothing in comparison to the potato, pasta, cheese, wine, olive, and bratwurst industries in relation to trade in food, but it was still rather admittedly impressive.

Still, only being told that there was merely one kind of variety of apple? For nearly her entire life?

"Well that might explain a few things. Snow White… is one sick, overly sentimental cookie." Raven concluded after a great deal of deliberation that, frankly, she was going to need to take like six showers just to scrub the filth off.

"Seconded." Kitty made a face.

Apple had been reportedly exhausted, but still very wide awake for a good while after coming aboard, and refused to close her eyes completely when they had moved her from the airship to the manor. Maddie, out of a combined sense of duty and guilt, had stayed within Apple's line of sight, answering questions and conversing with the princess on a whole slew of topics (Raven being the chief concern of a majority of them), the Hatter-girl only leaving her side when the Healers made the executive decision to knock the princess out while they reset the bones in Apple's hand and ankle.

"I've told them to stick her in your rooms when they're finished with her." Maddie announced the moment she'd burst through the doors to the study sometime after they'd all arrived to the manor. Pausing suddenly at the sight she was greeted by. "Why are all the group hugs happening when I'm not around?"

"We're holding her back from storming in and disrupting the Healer's work on Apple." Kitty corrected dryly.

Maddie raised a bemused eyebrow at the witch. "Couldn't even wait since coming back here before you tried to sneak away?"

Raven had the decency of looking embarrassed.

At this Maddie sighs, internally giving up a battle that was not hers to fight in the first place.

"She wants to see you. As soon as possible. I thinky dink that you should be there when she wakes up. She's… she still cares about you. A whole lot I suspect from the loopty-whirl of questions she's been asking about you Raven."

"Really?"

The way the witch perks up, almost desperately, it makes something in Maddie's heart break a little.

Perhaps they had underestimated Raven's feelings for Apple, and perhaps they should have intervened more in Apple's life to spare the princess from this fate, from both her upbringing and her mother.

That wasn't to say that Maddie would ever forgive Apple for how she had treated Raven in the past, nor that she thought Apple could ever do anything to win over her forgiveness. No, that would cause more harm than good to forgive such abusive behavior. The Apple from before, the leader of the Royal faction and everything hurtful she ever stood for or tried to harm others with the best of false intentions… that had to go.

But Raven was never one to be pushed around. And Apple was genuinely a good person underneath Snow White's influence, the new Apple… or to be more accurate the _real_ Apple was a good person. She was someone that Maddie might be able to eventually live with knowing that she had stolen Raven's heart, maybe even learn to approve of her depending on how things worked out.

Maddie knew that she didn't have to forgive past-Apple of anything, just as she knew that Apple-now and Apple-future could turn out to be a decent person if they'd just put their mind to it and stopped treating Raven like a pet or a circus freak, she'd already proven herself headstrong enough to finally defy the one thing that had been making her into more of a villain than a hero of the people.

…It's just that Maddie would have preferred that Apple had a screaming match over the phone. Or something. Rather than an actual knock-out drag-out fight.

Because seeing the princess all mangled and scared out of her mind, and to see Raven's eyes shine with worry and pain, was not something that Maddie would ever forgive _herself_ over.

"Really." Maddie nods.

"And she's going to be put in my chambers?"

" _Our_ family's fabulously awesome staff is already having your rooms prepared to the Healer's specifications sister dearest." The Hatter-Girl confirms with a sweep of her arm towards the open doors.

With a twist and a wiggle Raven bolts out of the room, no doubt off to help the family maids and butlers in whatever capacity that they'll allow of her with Raven's bandaged hands and arms.

"…We're not going to see her for days are we?" Kitty observes with a roll of her eyes.

"Not without Apple or Raven's mother being somewhere nearby. No I do not think so." Lizzie, oddly enough, does not sound the least bit upset. "Which is just fine since Wonderland needs to look after their young champion!"

Alistair lifts a brow. "Champion?" He asks confused.

"Apple's going to be crushed on all sides for being a White clan spawn and for the things her mother has done. Namely Wonderland isn't going to be so poised to forgive her the same way we've forgiven Raven." Lizzie explains. "You do realize this right? It's one thing for us to be outsmarted by a formidable opponent whose only real crime was to isolate an already self-secluded world. Not much damage done aside from the worry everybody had of that curse-cloud. And ever since Raven got rid of that cloud she's only gained Wonderland's respect and favor right?"

Kitty scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "What does that have to do with Apple?"

"Because Raven is not going to stand for Apple to be the scape Billy goat in this, Wonderland and a whole lot of other people are going to look at Apple as though she was the one who killed all those people, who disgraced a name that everybody used to love. You all know how much people care about things carved in stone rather than the individuals who pose as the statues!" Lizzie reasoned. "Raven's mother was _supposed_ to be evil, according to them she was just following her nature! Snow White, and in extension Apple, will not be as lucky!"

"Because with Raven everyone was shaking their heads and telling her not to fight what they expected of her. Evil was acceptable for Raven, natural in their eyes for her because that is what the monarchy does: stick to the script. But Apple has no such family reputations to fall back on. They will crucify her in her mother's place if Snow White does not die in battle." Maddie realized with a sickened jolt to her insides. "And Raven will fight to the very last nail to not see that happen. She will not allow even a crumb of what she had to go through at school hurt Apple."

"So we protect our King by protecting Apple." Bunny looked to Lizzie for clarification. "We make Apple out to be one of our own who was just simply born in the wrong world. We say that Apple reached a snapping point with her mother's abuse of her and all of Snow White's lies."

"We say that Apple fought her mother in Raven's name." Lizzie nodded in confirmation. "We tell them that Apple never wanted to fight, always wanted for there to be peace, but what Snow White had done today had been the last straw. Which, to be fair is probably the truth knowing Apple, but it'll still probably make a good enough story to save her from a completely exiled fate. And besides that I don't think anyone here wants to see the day Raven decides to flex those wings of hers against anybody stupid enough to compare Apple to Snow White."

A moment of silence passes as they think about it. Almost as one they all sort of shiver in combined interest and horror. Because Raven had a lot of power at the moment, more than the witch probably knew about, let alone would know what to do with once people began fawning over her and worshiping her, in the wake of Snow White's destruction lots of people wanted their nice, safe, fair maiden back, and if Raven made too much noise about people treating Apple unjustly they'd latch onto her and her supposed "pure nobility".

Raven would throw a fit if that happened. And so would the villain community most likely. No, it was better if Apple retained her fair maiden-dash-feral-warrior reputation, it really, really was.

"Didn't take you long to bounce back into Queen of Hearts mode." Kitty huffed.

"Too right!" Lizzie acknowledged cheerfully. Not looking sorry at all.


	32. Chapter 32

Apple couldn't do much in her state, so when she woke back up to find Raven dozing, half in a winged-back chair, half on the edge of her bed, the princess had to wine and make pseudo-grabby motions with her arms to get what she wanted, instead of simply just grabbing the surprised witch to cuddle up next to her.

The crying, surprisingly enough, had been minimal, and mostly on Raven's part for once (Apple's face hurt too much), and for a long while they just lay there, clinging onto each other with as much force that Apple's aches and pains would allow.

"I'm sorry." They managed in near unison, ever in tune to the other.

"I won't hurt you like that again." Apple swore.

"I'll tell you when something's gone wrong from now on." Raven said reasonably, neither forgiving nor indicating she had been the one in the wrong, simply acknowledging to give Apple the chance to do the right thing. "I think that you are more than capable of handling stuff now."

"You mean actually hearing you when you try to tell me really important stuff."

"I mean that I'm going to be super blunt, no more trying to trapeze around or treating you like some delicate flower. You are human, capable of handling the real world, you always have."

"Because a fairytale doesn't magically make real life go away." Apple cracked a smirk. "I'd rather have the real world anyway. Fairytales aren't all they're cracked up to be."

"I'll help you-."

"If you'll help me live a life devoid of my mo-, Snow White's crazy, and find happiness without a fairytale, I'll be more than happy. I've survived a war… -ish, I think that I'll be able to handle something slower-paced in the real world… with you?"

Raven cradled Apple's face with both her hands, being extraordinarily careful. "Always, my beautiful, maddening-"

"And don't forget Charming."

"Princess. My princess Apple."

And that was that for a couple of hours, until people started to pour in to check on them both.

XXX

Of course it was not going to be as simple as a single moment's mutual understanding and a slip back into old habits of being so close to each other (oh how easy it was when they were both reaching out towards one another).

In all actuality there were lots, and lots of awkward moments in between.

"…I honestly have no idea what to talk about right now. My mind's just… gone blank. Is this awkward? It sure feels kinda awkward."

"Um…You are a lot more direct now than you had been before Raven. I honestly didn't think that was possible!"

"It's the Wonderlandians. When awkward silences happen I like to point it out so that someone will fill in the quiet and things feel less… weird."

"Is that a cultural thing or…?"

"Me being their King? I honestly have no idea."

There was lots of talking too.

Lots of it.

Because so much had happened and they both felt the need of updating each other, since that was what worked before… a little bit, like before things cycled into the whole destiny thing.

But even a little bit was something because they both wanted… whatever this was to work, because despite all the very legitimate bad things that made their sudden separation desperately necessary, there was still something good that remained regardless, something that made them both ache and long to reach out for the other. It wasn't much and they'd have to work extra, super-duper hard not to wind up hurting each other again, but it might be worth it. If they could make it work.

They were hell-bent on not turning into their mothers though. That little horrible reminder centered in the back of their minds like a constant weight actually made things a lot easier than it would have been normally.

"So I've been mostly keeping to brighter colors, whites, cheerful patterns, and all that kind of stuff for my wardrobe."

"…I can accept this as long as you let someone else, like Lizzie for instance, or one of your maids, color coordinate for you."

"Are you saying that I can't choose for myself?"

"Teal and purple Raven. Teal and purple with animal print. And you wore that in public!"

"Technically Wonderlandian magic gave me that-"

"In public Raven. And don't even get me started on the design of that horrid dress! You looked constantly ready to tip over with that collar, and that skirt looked really uncomfortable. And don't deny it!"

There were also a lot of surprises. Some were told over the course of a long period of time-…

"Raven?"

"…"

"I understand that this is a lot to take in but I just wanted you to hear it all from me rather than through someone else first."

"…"

"Sorry about your tea going cold too, I know that this was a really big talk-… oh wow! Two hours have gone by, no wonder my voice sounds so hoarse. Anyway, those are the most important things that you should know about… if I think of anybody else I'll tell you."

"…uh."

"Yep. Preeetty much my sentiment."

"You've been _busy_."

"It's just as surprising to me as well, who knew that having a psychotic breakdown could lead to everybody believing that there was some undocumented cryptid running around in the forest. The hero classes had been out there for weeks looking for something that doesn't exsist!"

"I was talking about you becoming my mother's protégé'… and that bit about you letting her live in the dorm with you despite how your previous first meeting went…"

"Yeah well I was the daughter of the enemy back then. A-and she had already known that I had hurt you so most of what she had done at the Dragon Games was to get back at both me and Snow White… well mostly Snow White. She mostly saw me as too stupid to live, what with me playing nice, nice with a criminal bent on inter-dimensional domination. She's made it a point to break me out of that since then though."

And they were both cautious around one another, it was extremely necessary given their past history looming in the background like a terrible terror lurking like some creepy cryptid outside the window. Sure most of the bad stuff had diminished along with Snow White through the mirror, but that did not take away Raven's nightmarish emotional collapse out of exhaustion, nor Apple's mental landscape being so dependent on Raven being somewhere close by that she lost her mind… and still suffered isolated incidents where there were two separate identities of herself in her head instead of a united whole…

And a lot of it was difficult. The shared guilt alone of how badly each of their actions had hurt the other was sometimes so bad that they just… couldn't look at each other, and sometimes Apple had to restrain herself from commenting out of habit how Raven wasn't acting like a proper Evil Queen at all, and there were moments where Raven would look at the Apple before her now: with her scarred face and clad in shades of blacks or dark colors, wondering where the Apple she had known had gone. Torn between feeling relieved that Apple was now the sort of person who would not harm Raven, or immensely saddened that Apple would never get the happily ever after she had craved so much when they had first met.

It was difficult for Raven, for Apple to have changed so much, so drastically… so violently, and yet Raven really hadn't changed much at all save for her new titles and responsibilities.

Apple still suffered nightmares where Snow White would be devouring Clawstorm Queen's heart, and she would find her own blood-soaked hands clutching a dagger or a sharp comb that had torn open Raven's flesh. And while Raven didn't get those kind of nightmares about Apple specifically anymore, there were times in the dead of night when Raven jolted up out of bed, still half-expecting with a sudden, overwhelming sense that she was to find Snow White or one of her skeletal minions standing over her, preparing to kidnap her and whisk her away to horrors untold.

There was one thing that had seemed to soothe over a majority of contention between them.

"I'd rather not become the next Snow White- now hush Raven! This has nothing to do with you going forth into a fairytale or balancing things out between us so stop looking at me like that! …I honestly don't want it anymore… I don't think I ever did. Not really. It was all based on threats of a horrible fate if I didn't comply to-… her demands. And Ever After already runs itself on a commoner government, and right now my people really don't need to have to be dealing with the royalty tax that they still pay up to keep the royal family's coffers full to bursting. I'll make them get rid of the tax, let the commoner government take center stage, and step down from the Snow White title altogether. The school should be housed within a neutral kingdom anyway and I can be… more of a figurehead… only with more freedoms to pursue my own interests now that I won't be pursuing the story. I'm more than certain that some other maiden will be happy to have the story for themselves… Duchess comes to mind actually."

Raven continued to stare at her disbelievingly. Raven found that she was doing that a lot lately when she was around Apple.

Apple sighed, she knew that it sounded way more reckless and due to recent event than it was, in actuality, an action that was a long-time coming.

"I've never thought I'd actually had a choice. Despite your brave stance against fairytales I honestly thought that there would be nothing for you… nothing for me if we did not follow the script. The fact that you, or Hraban to be more exact, became a King who now rules over three separate kingdoms-turned-empire… shattered that illusion. I've been thinking about this for months and… your mother has helped me out a lot with discovering what interests make me happy and not content, and a lot of them have nothing to do with being a pure maiden."

"I need to break free from who I had used to be completely." Apple had continued in a small voice. "I need to become myself, not the person she had tried to scare me into becoming. All the things that used to make me feel so proud, so superior… that was all her doing, her lies. She made me think that I was born better than everybody else, better than you especially… born to pity your tragic fate and to complete my duties as I was told. I was told that if I ever toed out of line or sympathized with you and your rebel group too much then you'd all die! And I'd be the one to blame! I'd be-… I'd be tainted… and imperfect. Ugly. A-… a-…"

"You're not a bad person Apple." Raven cupped her face.

"That still doesn't excuse the way I treated all of you. The way that I hurt you Raven. Hurting people for being different or just wanting something different is never excusable… even when I had done it under the belief that I was saving you all… saving you especially… from yourself. I was so busy trying to control all of it, especially you, on top of remaining as perfect as my mother said I had to become that I never noticed how badly I was hurting you. Hex, I could have killed you more than once between the illness caused by your stress and all of those reckless adventures we were on! I was brainwashed into thinking that hurting people in that way was normal and perfectly acceptable! I don't want any part of that legacy… of what she had raised me to become. If I am ever going to become the person, I want to be I have to cut off the parts that she had bred and trained into me."

"Look I'm not saying that this isn't a good thing, or that I'm not deliriously proud of you for sticking up for yourself." Raven hesitated, then sighed. "It's just that you've worked yourself ragged for assuming your ancestral throne in such a way that honors the original Snow White so completely… it… surly it wasn't all bad was it? I mean I know how it feels to be ashamed of your heritage and that… is not an emotion that I'd ever want you to feel sorry for."

"I'm only ashamed of my mother." Apple shrugged. "Everything else… well when you look at the story in the right light it makes you really wonder whether the original princess actually had a happily ever after in the end. She was much better off staying hidden far away from any and all threats to her… that and your mom's pretty certain that Prince Charming was most likely a necrophiliac."

"…What?"

"Well it makes sense! I mean who would kiss a dead girl? Realistically!"

"…The things that you two make me hear…"


	33. Chapter 33

"Yo!"

"Yeek!" Apple jumped a foot. "Briar! Ashlynn! How did the two of you get in here! I thought Bunny said that you two wouldn't be around again till they cleared the school grounds from any unknown threats! How did you even get inside? Because Raven definitely would have told me if you were coming."

"Good to see you too?" Briar rolled her eyes.

"We snuck in the back, helped by an anonymous source!" Ashlynn greeted cheerfully. "How are you feeling sweetie? Your face looks so much better than last time!"

Being at the private manor in the middle of one of Raven's family apple orchards was… strange after Apple had gained back enough cognitive ability to really contemplate it, sure when she had first arrived she had known that she was in Raven's kingdom, and that Raven was there when she wasn't busy being king, aware that everyone was either being genuinely nice to her or just making a point to be polite… but it had still taken a while for the concept to sink in. It had even taken a while for her to find out that the numerous trees were apple trees, the lady in waiting who had informed her of this had seemed startled that Apple hadn't recognized the trees immediately (Maddie- who was now an official princess, _dear Ancestors_!- had given her a souvenir booklet about all of the different kinds of apples grown in the kingdom, she had been sporting a particularly unsurprised expression for some reason…).

When everything had hurt unbearably and it had been difficult to move without help Apple couldn't bring herself to summon the energy to care about anything aside from her own heartbroken turmoil and the almost unbearably bright happiness of having Raven back in her life again.

It had honestly taken more time that it should have for her to start turning her thoughts towards the future and where to go from here.

…Aside from not becoming Snow White and taking up the throne of her kingdom. That had been decided weeks and weeks ago back at the school.

It… had been nice. Perhaps a little too nice even. To, for once, not be required to be the epitome of perfection, or to look her best at all times. She could be as ugly and human as she wanted right now. A princess (albeit a battered one) who truly had no care in the world (though it helped that she felt pretty numb as her brain was still processing the fact that her own mother had hurt her, had tried to-).

"She's spacin' out again. Oi Raven! Are you sure she's fully recovered from that blow to her head?"

"Ah! Briar! Ashlynn! I had thought that you two would wind up her sooner!"

Apple blinked. "But they snuck in."

Raven shrugged. "And you expected that they'd do anything less? Where's Blondie by the way? Ajorn will need to know the exact number of you who had snuck in in order to bring enough cups of tea."

"It's just us I'm afraid." Briar sighed looking put out. "Blondie's mom has her on house arrest, she's even taken to following Blondie into the bathroom! Cupid has been busy running between keeping Blondie company and helping her father monitor the state of your mom's heart… Hunter is helping the Charming's figure out whether a certain… apparition reported in the mirror dimension is just a residual specter or-…"

"Undead." Apple finished with a roll of her eyes. "They want to know whether my mother is still up and kicking due to the dimension's preservative qualities and what that could mean for the surprisingly large population of locals living there."

"Yeah. And Faybelle is here officially to negotiate the terms and responsibilities as the new Evil Fairy Queen." Briar changed the subject desperately. "So, yep. Just us this time around."

Apple eyed her old friend's flush and the verrry impressive diamond ring adorning Briar's left ring finger, the blonde found herself wondering why Briar had to sneak in at all.

Raven nodded in understanding. "Everybody else, from what I've heard, is either at home with their parents or camping out at the Evil Queen ancestral citadel." The witch heaved a hefty sigh. "They're refusing to leave! I've tried to convince them that the school's campus is perfectly safe and as long as nobody starts trekking off into the woods all by themselves or without an adult escort then they'll be perfectly fine, but them Sparrow, or somebody else starts whining about how I should open up my own school for royalty at the citadel- which is not going to happen since there is nothing wrong with Ever After- and besides that! A huge portion of the citadel is already being used as a university and housing over a hundred other people and their families! It already has three schools of its own!"

"That place is massive." Briar admits. "Not nearly as big as the one Faybelle's family owns but still."

"It's all of the rooms linked into Wonderland and other dimensions." Raven explained. "It's made the place lots bigger than it used to be… Well at least Tiny feels at home for once."

A school in Raven's homeland… Apple supposed that might even the past out a bit, having all the influence possible over future monarchs in the Evil queen's ancestral kingdom and not Snow White's…

But that was a tactic that Raven wouldn't- _was not_ standing for. Lizzie had told Apple that Raven was one of the few people in the monarchy who had little taste for using her newfound popularity to gain more things than she'd know what to do with.

Before this whole mess started with Raven leaving school, Apple would not have the foggiest idea as to what the new Queen of Hearts was talking about.

Now those words made Apple tight knots in Apple's shoulders go lax, and the bitter taste left behind by Snow White sweeten into something that was… bearable. Something that she could work with she felt.

It was addicting, the knowledge that no matter what Raven would sponsor her in whichever path in life she chose. That she no longer had to worry about keeping strictly to the "right" path, now she could walk _her own_ path without fear of consequences.

Namely because Snow White wasn't going to be there to ensure that she did face consequences for not following her plan for Apple.

Or to tell her that she needed to start moving if she ever wanted to see a happy day in her life. Which is what her mother used to do whenever something sad had happened in Apple's life, like the death of a beloved pet or if somebody made comments about her hair and coloring being wrong. She used to tell Apple that bad things like that would only get worse if she didn't act her part…

Snow White had said a lot of things of a similar manner while Apple was growing up, as she had gotten older it had gone from vague threats of never having anymore happy days if Apple didn't mind herself and keep quiet, keep still, keep sweet… to how Apple had to become the most popular at school, and the best at everything, because if Apple ever wanted to be just like her mother then she would have to be just as good as she had been when the older woman was in school.

Of course all of her mother's teachings were nothing but a moot point now… since the same woman who had promised her never-ending happiness had also massacred nearly everyone Apple had grown to care about back home-

…Well it wasn't home anymore now, was it.

For a while Apple was just so in shock that she could not cry about it, she just could not! It was like being struck by lightning and surviving, everything hurt, like literally everything! But it had been so sudden and devastating that it had taken ages for her fried nerves to catch up.

The staff that had survived her mother's blood sacrifice had been well compensated and thoroughly acknowledged for their bravery and their loss, a handful of the ones that Apple had close to her as she had grown up were allowed to be set up or put to work at Raven's manor, all under the watchful eye of the King-family staff. The rest of the survivors were only Ancestors knew where as far as Apple had been able to bear looking into the matter at the moment.

Her childhood nanny hadn't spoken much about it, instead tittering on about Apple's scarred face and uneven hair where they had to cut the burned bits off, speaking urgently to the healers and the Ladies in waiting that Raven had appointed specifically for Apple, about potions and balms to soothe the angry red scarring on Apple's face.

And crying. There was lots of crying. Crying enough so that Apple didn't have to for a while.

Raven fretted and worried, but she was also fantastically busy so she couldn't help Apple as much as she really wanted to.

So as soon as Apple could be moved, Raven had brought Apple in to see Clawstorm Queen.

The witch hadn't been able to stay awake for long but she nevertheless had found the energy to embrace Apple and swear up and down and sideways that she'd take care of Apple and would get revenge on whomever had dared touch her.

She had sounded and acted so much like a mother, ass Apple had always wanted her mother to act like, that Apple had finally broken down, curled up by the unconscious older witch's side with Raven's comforting weight by her hip and the Good King gently brushing her hair out of her sore face.

She had cried for the father that she should have gotten to know better, for the people who raised her and who took care of the castle.

She cried for the family she should have had with her biological relatives… but instead had found with other people. A family she had found with strangers turned friends and allies.

Who knew, maybe she'd get lucky twice and be allowed for something a little bit more?

"I don't really blame some of our former classmates for wanting to stay here." Apple snickered bumping shoulders with Raven affectionately, like a giant blonde cat. "It's got bewitching charms after all."

Raven rolled her eyes. "I am never going to live that comment down it would seem."

XXX

They let Giles stay with her the whole time they moved her to someplace new and strange, filled with so much light, and noise, and stuff going on that she felt overstimulated. In this she was actually kind of grateful, at least she had someone constant to keep her anchored down a bit.

Not that they seemed to be able to make him leave, things happened too fast for her to be absolutely certain but she was pretty sure that he had declared to several people that he was staying and for them to "get over it", or something.

They'd pushed the Headmaster out though, or more specifically an angry classmate of Raven's had pointedly kicked him out, given the rose theme of her dress Clawstorm suspected one of the Beauty girls, but could not be sure. The Thorn girl was cackling too much for her to properly hear old Milton's indignant squawks as little Hunter helped escort him out.

A real fine boy he had turned out to be, she was proud of her fellow countryman.

The blonde child she had rescued from being slashed open had been bundled up in blankets to keep out the chill of shock and pressed protectively close to Giles's side. Distantly Clawstorm wondered what was with her and her tendency to mother scared little blonde girls because the witch found herself reaching out, and to her unending surprise the child latched onto her hand as if clutching onto the Evil Queen was the most comforting thing in the world.

She was also aware of the other young girls that had come with them, the one with wings cast spell after spell over her one minute and comforted her shivering blonde friend the next. The girl with a sword and young Hunter had been recruited by the locals to help keep guard (from the Headmaster probably given the fuss the girl wearing roses had just put up to the man's face), the Thorn girl was comforting the girl wearing roses, who still seemed hopping mad at the moment.

And then there was the pale one with brown hair, she was assisting the winged one with… something. Out of sight. From their mutterings with the Healers it was about Clawstorm's sudden lack of connection with Snowball, or maybe it was about a spider-silk thin thread pulled taught or some such analogy. They seemed to both want to and hesitate to cut it.

Clawstorm hardly cared. Snowball was far away and beyond reach. She knew this fact instinctually, just as she knew of her still-beating heart and the sleep clouding her mind.

She later recalled awakening several times after that, before re-submerging into slumber. The timeline of when and in what order people visited is hopelessly jumbled up and out of sequence. But she had to her credit, been exhausted, it was a wonder that her body let her wake up at all in those first two weeks. Someone was always there when she did:

Raphael and the Hatter chap who spoke softly, kissing her fingers and cheek, telling her that all was well and…

Little Raven, her baby bird, giving her gentle hugs and tears shining but unshed in her eyes and…

Now little Appleseed was with her little bird, crying openly with big fat tears running down her face- her battered, injured face, until she buried her blonde head by her prone shoulder, curling into the quilted covers while Clawstorm weakly brushed her fingers through the child's braided hair to comfort her distress, swearing to wreak havoc upon the fool who dared lay a finger-…

Giles would read her stories in her native tongue, his accent was atrocious but the effort made her feel at home and loved so she just smiled and listened…

Her mother visited often, sometimes by herself, sometimes with others. There must be something about the witches in the family because Little Apple clung to Elenore Queen like she had done with the rest of the family, no more sneaking into that cramped attic to see how well her daughter and granddaughter were fairing…

Young Madeline was always sipping her tea, she looked quite nice with that tiara attached to her hat. Better to have a princess of the people looking after the homeland while Raven was off ruling the larger whole of a fast growing empire and…

The Headmaster and her mother staring each other down at the foot of her bed, her mother didn't want him there. He insisted that Clawstorm's career as Evil Queen did not have to end with Snow White. Elenore Queen said that he was a fool who could not step back from the shiny light to see the teeth of the fish about to devour him.

He was of course confused. That analogy never did translate well to people who did not grow up by the sea.

Quite a few things had been said while they thought she was asleep, harsh whispers revealing secrets that were surprising and made a lot of things suddenly make a whole lot of sense. Clawstorm didn't quite know how to feel about it though.

But that was a worry for a later date, if ever, since her parent's issues weren't hers exactly, except only by association and blood-ties.

The point was that she was alive, and free, finally, after so much heartbreak, finally free!

XXX

Like many things in Raven's life things took to her example and then took a life of their own.

A committee of school oversight and conduct had been formed while she had been busy.

Busy being the King, she'd like to point out, since by this point she was so done with her old school that she had tried to escape, several times, after they had surprised her in the castle hallway and she had been dragged away as an unwilling newly appointed chairwoman of mentioned committee.

In sheer self-defense she had decided to name a surprised, and very thrilled Evil Fairy to take her place, with the recommendation that Briar be trained for a position as well once she came of age.

It was spiteful, cruel, and Raven very much did not care about the hell that she had just unleashed.

Though to be fair… she could not hand off all of her unwanted duties to others…

XXX

"You do know that somebody is going to have to talk to him right?"

"Why should we? The old bastard gets no fucking say in anything if I've got anything to do with it!"

"Briar! Such language!"

"Shut up Fey, you know you love it."

"Yes, I do agree that his influence should be restricted down to running the upkeep of the campus and making those bored sounding speeches-"

"Pffsh. He shouldn't even be allowed to speak!"

"But he is still the Headmaster. We will need time, lots and lots of time, to both find a new one to replace him as well as wait for enough time to pass so that we don't have all of these royal officials stand to his defense if we tried to force him out now. And we need to tell him in a way so that he doesn't fight us while we work to establish something that will hopeful keep another Evil Snow White from rising up for the next century or more at least…"

"Oh just give me five minutes with the idiot, I'll tell him exactly how this is all going down!"

"I'll be happy to help!"

"Briar! Hunter! No violence!"

"Of course not Ash."

"I meant that you should not encourage Briar sweetie, I know that you'd never go that far."

"I make zero promises!"

"Oh for the love of- I meant that we should find someone who will be… diplomatic and calm-ish. Someone who is not looking to settle scores."

"Like who? Apple is in no condition to do anything and your father has always hated the Headmaster from what I've heard. By the way your head chef makes amazing cakes."

"I was wondering who had let you in since you and Ashlynn have infiltrated Raven's ancestral home. Geez I can't believe that I'm the one who is legit in being here and you two fair princesses are the ones to break all the rules! I knew that there was a reason why I loved you so much Briar."

Raven sighed as the two girls made moony eyes at each other. "Never mind. I'll go talk to him. At least with me he'd be somewhat expecting it."

"And if he just goes ahead and gives you trouble like always?" Hunter challenges.

Raven bites her lip, thinking. The possibility of confronting the Headmaster after she became King had always plagued her. She had thought of every twist and turn to how a fair argument would play out: which was disastrously. Just like always. Unless…

"I've always tried being open and honest with my reasons so that he'd treat me like an adult, or at least like a real person and not some soulless personified entity. But that's never worked so…" Raven shrugged weakly. "I guess this time I'm going to have to lie, and act a little bit evil just to catch his attention."

She goes on to describing what she thinks will work. Faybelle chimes in on what she _knows_ will work. And Briar demands to listen in.

Raven's father is quiet all throughout the new council committee's meeting. He had said before this that this was a fight that was more suited for the students to have a say in rather than an adult who was out of touch with what was going on at the school. And Raven knows that he is keeping his word, while keeping an eye out to see if they can handle something this… sensitive. And in turn Raven had asked those who would be committed to improving the situation immediately while also being unafraid to back down against figureheads older than them. The result has been a very odd committee council consisting of both senior students who will be sticking to this long after they've graduated, plus some teachers and alumni who also want to find a solution to the two school factions as well as preventing another evil maiden or whatever from emerging from the shadows.

Or to keep the Swan Queen from seeking her revenge on an unsuspecting Headmaster, Duchess was beyond happy that mad scientists were able to bring her mother back to human form but the woman herself was furious that the spell had lasted so long, only to find out that it was a simple fix to reverse. If only a certain Headmaster had not intervened to prevent any tampering with "the story's magic" or something. Raven did not have the full story.

It had to be done soon, and it had to be her.

Being a responsible adult sucked.


	34. Chapter 34

She's already in the library when he steps in a good hour early before their scheduled appointment. She would have preferred that he hadn't, arrived so early that is. And she would have definitely preferred that he had a better sense of timing at the very least; seeing as a healer is currently working on changing the bandages on her arms and hands, and she has yet to get through the past three dressing changings without tearing up or making pathetic, sickly shocked noises throughout the entire process. She's also blatantly refused anything stronger than numbing ointment and a low-grade over-the-counter product that she'd normally use for menstrual pains. So much is happening around her all at once that she doesn't dare inhibit herself to such a degree.

She had wanted some time alone before she talked to him as well. Her personal views about the Headmaster have always been confused and shaky, and her interactions with the man have never been cordial or pleasant, always dissolving into a battle of wills over who was right, and seeing how long, how many stiff, stinging words it would take for one of them to flinch. Raven had never wanted to see the horrid man again if she could get away with it personally… but this wasn't about her, and this was important, and having her father here, doing this instead would get them nowhere (seeing as how much he gleefully enjoyed riling the older man up).

If anyone was capable of getting through this with some semblance of accomplishment, it would either be Raven or nobody at all. A hex if she did, hex, if she didn't, sort of thing. She was the King now, it was her responsibility, her _duty_ , to inform the stubborn man that if he was not going to comply with the changes happening, regardless of his influence (which there wasn't much of at the moment) or his input (for which there would be none), then he can just go and stuff himself and sod off!

But politely, because she was still a lady, a Lady King to be more precise.

He had apparently been surprised to see her as well since the first words out of his mouth when he barged into the door had been: "Now see here my good sir, I do not take kindly to being kept in the dar- oh Miss- er, your highness… King of Hearts."

"You're early." Raven observed blandly. "I was expecting to meet with you about an hour from now Headmaster."

He'd looked between her, the glaring healer, and her exposed arms, head swiveling about comically. For once absolutely speechless.

"Why don't you sit down." Raven suggested tiredly, if he was going to barge in before she was ready then she was just going to have to finish this quickly, like ripping off a bandage. "After Healer Bones is finished we can start and get this all over with. Tea? Or would you prefer something stronger?"

He'd declined any refreshment, looking a little lost while the healer finished up- staring dumbly down at Raven's sore hands as if it were the oddest thing he's ever seen- leaving them behind with a comforting pat on Raven's shoulder, and a severe glare in the Headmaster's direction.

"I lent my power out." Raven awkwardly indicates after a long, tense silence.

"I'm surprised, given your past history, that you didn't rush out there all on your own." He admits, looking just as unsure about this meeting as she feels.

"I couldn't." Raven shook her head. "I wanted to, I really, really did. But they would have stopped in in an instant, and… I can't keep doing that anyway, the whole…" She gestures, searching for the best way to get this out. "You know, the whole thing we'd did at school where something bad would happen and both myself and Apple would have to make it all better again. I'm a monarch, not a soldier. I need to be kept alive for the sake of the stability of my country."

"Hmph." The man harrumphs. "And you are the last heir in the line, your mother is hardly able to bear any more children for quite a good long while young lady. I'm glad that you've finally taken to stop scaring everyone with your harebrained stunts in toeing the line between mortality and the afterlife. Goodness knows how many times your father has called me in regards to your safety while at school."

Raven gaped at him for a good moment. The _nerve_! _He had been worried about my safety because you weren't doing anything to ensure it!_ "You know most normal people would just stick to simply being happy that there were enough trained professionals around, _actually doing their jobs_ , so that any personal interference on my, or any of my court's part would be minimal." She speaks pointedly, tactfully deciding not to mention Maddie's _brief_ adventure into the center of the battlefield. "And I never actually had much of a choice in a lot of the stuff that happened at school, if you will recall. Most of it just… happened! Like the time that dragon escaped and nearly incinerated me."

"You did on Legacy Day." The man points out, unfazed. As if all the monumental changes in the past few months and the near eradication of the entire White family, by their own matriarch's hand, and the lives lost during the battle were of little consequence.

The first part of her comment flies over his head of course, she didn't-… she couldn't see why she'd think differently; it's all about fairytales with the Headmaster, and he has yet to forgo an opportunity to argue about it since Legacy Day. Despite the urgency for more obvious issues needing to be addressed.

Maybe it's the last shred of comfort the man has? Maybe that's why he's starting up this old and tired argument again, like he's unable to process what's just happened.

He could be in shock Raven supposes, after all everybody is in shock right now, even the people from the Monster Dimensions are gaping at the news feeds and most of them barely speak the same languages, let alone understand why fairytales exist at all really. She was not looking forward to the fallout on that particular cultural difference, since the locals at least understood that tradition carried heavy weights in this world… aaand the monsters, the ones who lived for several millennia at least, were used to changing times and going with the flow. Fairytales mystified them just as much as it offended their equal-rites sensibilities between "normies" and "ghouls".

But back to the Headmaster, there had to be a way for him to not… well do that thing he did whenever he ignored the obvious. Especially now, when she needed his cooperation the most.

"Headmaster… I spent months researching the origins of fairytales, read countless books of the violent history of our ancestors. I know from the historical accounts that the Book was created to keep peace between our varied realms. I knew what I was getting into, and I understand that it is very important to keep the ruling class from going to war, and that's why I Rebelled: because it wasn't working anymore! Don't you see? Snow White kept rallying people up to make herself more popular sure, but she was also bringing her people to the brink of declaring war with mine!" The witch insists, for once speaking the complete truth of her most basic fear towards the White family and their influence.

For a long moment the man just… stares at her, as though he's been given a clue that will solve the puzzle to life's greatest puzzle, and in the moment Raven's chest swells with hope-

"Well no wonder you've driven yourself to rebellion!" The Headmaster exclaimed suddenly, as if he'd just solved one of the biggest mysteries of the century. "With all that nonsense in those pages, it was little wonder you rebelled! You must have been utterly petrified by all of those lies!"

What made Raven pause was not the audacity of the man's words, nor the fact that he had the nerve to even say them in front of her, after everything she had gone through, and everything that had happened in the last forty-eight hours. No, what made her pause was… the fact that he sounded so-… genuine, so sure of himself. As if his every word spoke of a belief held so true in his heart that he needed no deception to deny the reality of their whole situation; he didn't need to deny anything, his wholehearted belief that fairytales and the gentry would see through was so great… that everything else, including relevant evidence, just did not compute with him.

"You really mean that, don't you." Raven realized bewilderedly. The shock running through her like a live current. "About all that stuff with tradition, the magic, and the monarchy upholding their "better" status… I bet that you took one look at all of those history texts that used to occupy the school library, about the wars in the bad old days, and how they theorize that the Book of Legends was created by our ancestors in order to better control the warring monarchs, and made them all disappear because they were so damaging towards the reputation of the school's alumni and towards fairytale traditions."

"And for good reason don't you see?" The man gestured with such confidence and belief that it left the witch absolutely stunned. "None of this would have happened if everything had been followed according to tradition!"

"Because tradition is there for a reason, and its relationship with our Ancestor's descendants is what keeps our society continuing on as normal." Raven spoke near timidly, gingerly trying to feel around for any cracks or lies that the man may be hiding.

"Exactly! Now You're finally getting it!" He cheered brightly. "Your Ancestors in particular had been an instrumental part of the original Grimm Brother's quest to save our world from un-gentrified chaos! There were revolutions being raged by the common peasants at the time don't you know? It was dangerous what they were doing! Taking out the monarchy can only lead to barbarianism and chaos! That's why fairytales are so important!"

For the first time in their acquaintance, he smiled at her, with pride shining in his eyes. And it was in that moment that Raven realized _exactly what_ she had been dealing with this entire time in regards to the Headmaster's behavior towards her and the Rebels.

Raven knew because had _met_ people like the Headmaster before, people who were not born into royalty or the fairytale families, but into the families that _served_ them. The cooks, and butlers, and dressmakers, the people who did all the grunt work and did it with a smile, because they were _special_ working so close to society's elite, they were _important_ , it was their _heart and soul_ to look after their betters. Because it was… it was _because_ of them that their betters were able to rule absolutely and with divine grace. People like the Headmaster were faithful to the _literal_ definitions of their jobs.

The Headmaster wasn't some brilliant mastermind, who just wanted to heroically control the ruling class in order to keep them from squabbling in each other's blood, and the blood of the working class… he _wasn't_ the clever man who played both sides like a game of chess, working to harden the villains into supreme warlord-like entities in order to make the good characters appear purer in comparison, and in return gaining ill-gotten favors like a corrupt dog breeder.

No, the Headmaster was just _loyal_ , stubbornly, stupidly, _loyal_ to being the servant tasked with the important duty of turning the lot of them into proper young gentleman and ladies before establishing them into their proper places as his betters.

Raven didn't know whether to pity the man or to slap him.

"The fairytale magic did end up all odd between my mother and Snow White." Raven pushed, testing to see just how well the man's faith would hold up. "Cupid has not been able to contain herself with certain… delicate information in regards towards who the real "Prince Charming" was in their ah… story…" She gives him a look, daring him to deny the truth that the magic had no discrimination what-so-ever on the gender of princes.

The Headmaster sighs sadly, shaking his head. "An unprecedented twist to the narrative, I must admit… however; destiny should have never been denied once it had been spoken." He stares mournfully at his hands. "Not even I would have objected to such a union. Clearly if True Love were obeyed then we would not be in this mess."

Well never mind about the pity, Raven _really_ wanted to slap him now.

Raven breathed in a careful measure of calming breath. Smothering all the angry words she'd like to speak to the man about his avocations for an unhealthy abusive relationship. She had a job to do, and news to break; she could not lose her head to a pointless match of wills.

"If you are willing to accept that much… then please try to listen to what I am… attempting to put into words. It has not been… easy you understand. More consequences have transpired than a story between two people… with a True Love bond who were denied to rise to their full potential. Like I said before; I did not want to give up my heritage- not the heritage that _she_ had tried to enforce against my family to make herself look better mind you… but my _real heritage_ , the one that was passed down to me from the Queen line, and should have been mine as was my birthright."

Raven kept her eyes level with the Headmaster's willing him to not barge in with a fight, to _for once_ _in his life_ , look at things from a different perspective. "She took away my heritage Headmaster. Evil Queens are supposed to be respected for the powerful witches that they are, not feared or disrespected for the curs that Snow White had made others believe of us. And more importantly: the very future of my kingdom was in jeopardy! I literally had no hope of inheriting the throne because just existing put in too much of a risk for-"

"Yes but you could have overcome that." He interrupted with sincere assurance. _Arrogant_ , was the word that came to the forefront of Raven's mind since, no, she could not have overcome that all by herself _thank-you-for-absolutely-nothing_! "If you would have just…" He hesitates.

"She had plans for me Headmaster." Raven says quietly because the thought still scares her.

"I know." He sighs. Defeated. Actually acknowledging this part of the truth ( _Huzzah_ , she internally sneered).

"She had a tower all set up. With enchanted strangling ivy and power-limiting potions to keep my magic in check. She was going to have me end up worse than-…"

"I know." He sighs again, miserably breaking formality by covering his face.

It's not how she had expected this conversation to go; she had envisioned shouting, glares, accusations… not this. It was as if their roles were reversed somehow, and while she had come in here with the intent to yell at him and tell him off for his blatant abuse of his authority, of how he had treated her and her mother, and how it had crossed a very distinct, thick line, that was painted with glowing paint and had all sorts of warning signs all around it! She had wanted satisfaction in telling him that she'd never forgive him for playing favorites instead of doing his job, and that it was his fault for not stepping in, and _just look at where that had led_!

And then she'd tell him about how she was making sure that he'd keep his precious job, under strict supervision, and only until she could find a valid replacement, afterwards he could take his retirement and _bugger off_!

Raven feels cheated (and disgusted). He had never treated her with a single modicum of respect while she was in school, and yet here he was, sitting before her and speaking to her as if she had magically transformed into someone worth listening to, someone worth talking to like an intelligent being! …Someone who was worth… _something_.

But then again that was before she became King, before she had a title that he could respect.

 _He_ wasn't playing by the rules, and for once she mentally cursed about how _that_ break from tradition, _his break_ from the traditional neutral Headmaster, just… it _wasn't fair_!

"I would have never felt I had needed to become a full Wonderlandian, or turn back from destiny if all of this had been handled properly." She says at last because she knows that this will mean more to him than anything else. Will hurt him more than it did her. All the other stuff about her people and her family being put into danger does not mean as much to people like him… as does the sanctity of a royal line and the grandness of a kingdom's pride.

Her words hit their mark, because he's the sort who is actually enchanted by the idea of the separate royal family lines making endless, predictable mating dances, and seeing that the ancient homelands keep their ancestral boundaries, going 'round and round conducting the same spiraling choices that is foisted upon them from the day a new heir is born. His entire frame visibly sags as if her words carry the news of a thousand casualties of innocent civilians.

"I know." He whispers brokenly, too tired to keep up his manners, and not slouch in front of a King and a Lady.

 _He's not nearly as smart, or resourceful, or as scary as you had made him out to be_. Raven's mind speaks to herself with firm certainty. She could have built something off of smart, some form of foundation off of him doing the things he had done in the name of keeping the monarchy from stepping too far. She might have even eventually grown to have forgiven him… even _like_ him if that were the case, since the monarchy scared her too most days. But with this, there was _nothing_ for her to hold onto.

And because of that she's knows that she can never, ever, respect him ever again. It breaks her heart because that's all that she had left that was at least somewhat positive in her relationship with him. She may not have liked him, but she had at least respected him.

It's terrible, so she buries it deep into her mind so that she won't cry in front of him, but… she really does hates him now, like few people she's ever actually, genuinely hated, and it _hurts_! This man who was little more than a fanatic doing what fanatics did best; making life harder to live for everybody else aside from them!

So she focuses on the throbbing ach in her bandaged hands and arms, it's better than the ach located in her chest. Trying not to think about how this was somehow worse than her breaking up with Dexter for some… strange platonic reason. Like finding out that someone you looked up to, despite the arguments and being on opposite sides, wasn't who you thought they were, and that they had just let you down. Big time.

It was awful. He truly didn't care about them as people, just pretty things that needed to be molded into stylized perfection. Cared about the citizens of her country even less since they weren't of the proper breeding stock. A coward too petrified of the tides of time itself to look past the glitter and illusions to see the humans (and assorted other creatures) underneath…

"How long do I have?" He asks timidly.

"Hm?"

"My-… me being Headmaster. I assume that's why you've asked me to come in here. Your father did not mince his words when he ran into me a little earlier." There is a plaintive note in his voice, as if only his well-formed manners kept him from spitting as he cursed the Good King.

Raven raised both brows as she inhaled. "Actually I called you to inform you that I'm trying to make it so that you'd keep your job for a while longer."

"You-?" The rate he goes from depressed to floored is impressive.

"The school needs the illusion of a neutral party taking care of the heirs of the gentry." Raven reminded flatly. "For some reason people get…" She almost says; nervous about other countries having absolute control over the heirs, but the remembers whom she is speaking to. "…They like the consistency of certain traditions."

"I- uh- o-of course they do!" Ah. There is some of his bravado back, his shoulders returning to their upright positions. "It just wouldn't be right otherwise."

"Don't get too excited headmaster." Raven stares up at the ceiling, silently asking to be granted some patience. Somehow the lowercase in his title seems more appropriate inside her head. "I am _trying_ to keep you at school for a few more years, I literally can't promise anything. Not with Wonderland having been denied a more satisfying defeat of their enemy, and their adrenaline still pumping for a fight at any rate."

"Well… yes. But you're the King! I'm sure that you'll have some influence in this situation!" He spoke with a growing confidence, and reverence that made her positively ill.

"Only so much." She told him, sternly. "And even then it may not be enough to last long enough to find a proper neutral party for you to train to take over… that is unless you've got an heir or two that you've been hiding?"

He blushes bright red. Looking suspiciously shifty, and sheepish. "No, ah… Giles had always wanted children of his own, but… was never blessed with the capability to start a family. And I… was the eldest. My duty was solely to the school by tradition, getting married was out of the question."

Raven squints at him suspiciously. "I'm willing to back any bastard children should they turn up-"

"No need!" He somehow manages to blush even redder. "You'll have your hands full, I'm sure, with prevailing to the Wonderlandian masses. I'm certain that whomever you manage to find will be sufficient."

Suspicious… she'd look into it once she had the time.

"Yes… I'm confident that we can ensure that Giles remains untouched by all of this. People are less likely to turn on him in the wake of this mess."

"Thank you for that." He nods, actually sounding grateful.

"Then there is also the matter of your future retirement."

He blinks, suddenly nervous again. "Retirement, your grace?"

"Something my mother insisted upon. That you be taken well care of in the event you are unable to continue your duties, or if the heat of accusations becomes focused your way once again." She half-lies through her flat tone. Her mother had actually been sarcastic, but he needn't know that. "Cabin in the woods, townhouse in a minister's district, constant monthly allowance, and medical care. Whatever you want, within reason and my abilities. We'll look after Giles as well. Ensure he lives as long a good life as he can."

"Really?" The man looks floored again.

"It's a bribe headmaster. Not charity." Raven huffed looking away from his wide gaze. "In exchange with playing nice with the oversight committee that is already being formed. Don't ask me. I've been too busy to get a good look at what is being planned." She lies blatantly. "Finding a suitable recruit for the headmaster's desk is going to take a lot of time for me to do properly. I just need you to keep on their good side long enough for that to happen. It is going to take years, and I'm not even certain that I'll be able to succeed before they decide to elect someone of their own choosing, but I'll do my best."

"Oversight committee." The man narrows his eyes, not at her, unfortunately because that would have made her feel better, but out the window and at the closed door located across the fifth floor court-yard. "Preposterous! All for a maiden who turns evil? There was never any uprising when your mother was at her height in her career!"

"She also never directly killed anybody and turned their corpses into a burning skeletal army." The witch reminds as reasonably as she can. "People are scared. They need to feel like they're in control and safe."

"And the answer to this is some… unnecessary committee?" He bristles. Again, not at her, but at the door. She wonders if he knows that the door leads to the ruling offices, where her father would be at this time of day, with the other concerned parents, making conference calls to the Ever After government, and so forth. And if he does, then… how? Did her grandmother invite him over back when they had been dating?

Raven shrugs. "I'm just the messenger. honestly I've been too preoccupied with taking care of my mother and Apple to have had any proper look at what the others are doing in the aftermath of this whole thing."

The man lets out a frustrated huff, scratching his brow in thought. "Yes, of course your Grace, highly improper this… do you have any plans for this? You don't sound too fond of this… madness yourself."

She gives him a humorless smile, _oh goody_ he thought that she was his friend now, her stomach positively roiled.

She speaks the truth. "If the feeling of safety is what this committee represents to them, then I'll simply have to find little ways to keep it from becoming too biased and overbearing… a checks and balances system if you will. Since it would be near impossible to get rid of the thing now that it has been mentioned for the whole of the alumni."

"The whole of the alumni-?" The man gapes. "They can't be _all_ in on this!"

"They are frightened Headmaster." Raven reminds semi-sternly. "They need to feel as though they are in control of everything, so that people still have a place to send their heirs, and so that they can feel safer about seeing any potential Evil Snow Whites developing in their midst. They don't actually _have_ to be in control as long as they've got the feeling of safe familiarity, and the illusion that they are being important."

It's sad that she's actually talking about him, even sadder that he buys her words without even questioning the fact that she never mentions the oversight committee even once, and is looking pointedly at him.

"That is very… clever of you, your Grace." The man praises, sounding almost shocked that he's speaking the words aloud.

He stares at her as if he's only just seen her for the very first time in his life. And really, he looks very sad indeed as she continues to hold his stare. "You would have made an astonishingly brilliant Evil Queen. Such a shame you've never been able to use your full potential in the art of villainy."

She wants to kick him. And maybe she imagines slapping him again, because he's looking at her with hopeful eyes that speak volumes about how her mother got so messed up with all that fanatic villainy idiocy in the first place. It speaks of hope and the beginnings of ideas forming in his mind about how she can become a good little evil witch, and take back her family's villainy title and slowly integrate things back to normal.

That look is dangerous because people like him never learn their lessons completely, or at all most of the time. He probably doesn't even stop to think about how his views on what a good villain used to be, is what Snow White had used as a basis for her grab for power.

If Raven has learned anything from this, it's that stubborn idiots are resistant to change, and nothing makes them more dangerous than when they are given a cause, and a target to yell about where other people can hear.

Luckily this is one situation that Raven has always… sort of predicted would happen. It had taken her a long time to go through different scenarios with Maddie's help, but eventually she had taken some sage advice from her father and held a plan close in the event of an emergency.

"Is that what you think Headmaster?" Raven's eyes narrow in irritation. "That all this time I've foregone my entire heritage? Even after I have just revealed, with great reluctance mind you, that I never had wanted to give up my birthrights in the first place?"

After all, how can the man keep harassing her in the hopes that she can still someday become an Evil Queen… if he already thinks that she _is_ one?

He furrows his brows in confusion. "What do you mean your Grace?" He looks at her doubtfully. "I've never witnessed you perform any true acts of villainy while at school. I would have known because it would have definitely have been something worth noting. And celebrating." He nods his head towards her, interest peaked.

Raven sighs numbly. "headmaster, who drove Snow White crazy because they got more popularity points than her daughter?"

His eyes fly open as wide as they can go.

"I hate maiden classes." She goes on to say before he can speak. "Maidenly duties such as cooking and sewing are useful skills to keep in practice, but nothing more. If you had noticed I never strayed outside my line of specially tailored Evil Queen clothing and regalia while in school, my magic was always appearing to "act up" in odd, embarrassingly endearing ways, I was never particularly good in my villain courses save for a few… _select exceptions_ … along with a bunch of other things that I don't have time to mention." _Or make up_ , she thinks to herself.

"You…?" His head weaves and bobs as if he's attempting to see something about her that he hadn't before. "You?"

Raven grinned grimly through sharp teeth, eyes, flashing, oh so very faintly, making herself appear as less human as possible for effect. "She took away a lot of things from me headmaster." She improvises to drive the point home. To make him believe. "She took away my family, my throne, my respect… my dignity. She abused and lied to _my_ princess, her actions endangered _my_ people, threatened the very core of _my_ heritage, and the lives of myself _and_ my adopted kin. She did it all and awaited eagerly for me to rear up and bite so that she could entrap me and use me like an animal in a circus attraction. So I resisted the only way I knew how."

"You turned your back on your destiny." The man breathed.

She glares at him severely. "It was not a decision that I made lightly, despite what I have fooled you, and everyone else into believing. Like I said before: I spent _months_ researching every other available avenue I could alternatively take. There were none. No matter how desperately I searched. Finally, I took the chance that I would not end up disappearing if I did not sign the Book, and even if I did, all the old wives' tales had assured me that no one else would be harmed but myself, and a different villain family would assign their prodigy to take my place."

"You were willing to sacrifice yourself for this?" The man seemed horrified. After all, she was an only child, and the last heir to the Queen Lands.

"Mine wasn't the only family affected by her inappropriate slander." Raven's voice came close to snapping. "You know very well how many fairytales originate, and currently reside from my homeland, they are by rights my people. My mother's incarceration promoted me to the title of their Queen and sovereign. I may have scoffed at the notion that a mere lack of a signature could ever wind up erasing someone like me from existence without a fight, but both my pride and my duty refused to give her the satisfaction of me being too cautious, too complacent, not to do something! At the very least my untimely disappearance would have shattered all hopes of her having something to lord over my mother's head, and a villain family strong enough to fight back to deal with. But seeing as how _skeptical_ I was about it, I held little worries with slipping out of existence."

She cast him a knowing look. He at least had the decency to look somewhat chastised.

"And then there was the way she had been treating Apple, which _I hope_ that you at least have _some_ idea by now of what I am talking about. And how un-maidenly, not to mention inhumane, she could get with her own daughter." She squinted at him, as if daring the man to attempt to cobble together a reasonable excuse for Snow White's parenting style out of nothing but his own shattered dreams of a perfect monarch to rule them all. "As her roommate she could not hide just how… _difficult_ things could get if Apple so much as stuck a toe outside of Snow White's plans, or dropped in popularity at school."

"Giles… has kept me informed since he's personally taken responsibility for her case…" the man hedges in a tone that indicates that Giles had actually a lot to say to his older brother about Snow White… and that it hadn't been at all flattering of the woman's character.

"She treated Apple like dirt." Raven states bluntly. Completely unapologetic. "Even if my family's honor was not on the line I still would have refused to poison Apple, not unless that shrew of a Snow White was kept as far away from the throne as possible once Apple stepped up. I lived with Apple, and she was my princess. Mine. I do not take kindly to anybody, not even the girl's own mother, encroaching on what is my birthright, my princess, in any form of evil capacity. Especially domestic abuse."

He looked at her oddly and for a moment Raven wondered if he would question her on why she was sounding more noble than evil.

"Yours?" He said instead, which only furthered her suspicions towards his selective hearing problems.

"You dated my grandmother. You'd know better than most how protective Queens get over their princesses." Raven narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"And you still consider her your princess? Even after becoming the King of Hearts?" he was looking a bit confused now.

"She's staying here for as long as she pleases isn't she?" Raven huffed moodily. "Honestly headmaster, just because I've been forced to reinvent my family's brand of villainy does not mean that I'll be willing to give up all of my former duties from my heritage… no matter how much circumstances have changed or how unrecognizable my life will have become from my Ancestor's path. I only regret that I had to sacrifice so much, including my role in the Snow White tale, before I was finally able to thwart her."

"Must you truly give up your role?" The man looked equal halves mournful and proud, actually reaching out and gingerly taking her injured hands in his own. Cradling them with the same care Apple had done a few days prior when Raven had recalled her side of what had happened the day of the battle. Suddenly Raven's brain seemed to notice that the headmaster had always seemed to smell of old books, coffee, and gin. Not a bad smell for sure but it seemed so out of place for a man who ran a school. The other teachers, for instance, smelled of chalk, coffee, and the air freshener that they perfumed the halls with.

Just how qualified was the man for his job?

Raven suppressed a wince, the man had no right to act as if they had ever been that close, like a mentor to a prodigy, or like an older relative to a younger one. The instinct to slap was very strong indeed.

Instead Raven squeezed his dry fingers lightly with her own, damaged ones, and used the pain shooting up her arms at the action to mask the fakeness of her own hurt expression.

"You know I can't. Too much damage has been wrought throughout the years for me to ever be able to go back. Even though I truly want to I cannot deny the responsibilities that I must see to now: What with untangling the messes that Snow White has left in her wake, restoring my kingdom back to its former glory, ruling as King over what is looking to become a Wonderlandian empire very soon, taking care of my family and Apple in the aftermath, ensuring that the school does not receive a new Headmaster or Headmistress anytime soon, and… I as well need to address the damage that… I myself have done… at the time I was so focused on keeping my family and kingdom safe that now… it really surprised me how many have followed me into rebellion, and are wanting to stick with it even after all has been said and done. To the point to where it cannot be fixed with me explaining everything, they've already made up their minds and with the committee… I dare say that nobody has ever mentioned how much of a headache the aftermath of a war can be, even after a cold one."

It hurts her cheeks to keep from grinning smugly, so she clutches his hands and lets the sharp stabs and the aching itch from aggravated wounds do the talking. It hurts, it aches so badly it makes the nerves in her pointed teeth scream, but if she does not keep down the triumphant bout of laughter it will be all for naught, this ruse. But oh, oh how wonderful it was! To finally have gained her freedom while losing nothing of who she was! Even gaining so much for her family and people that her heart is fit to burst with joy-

"There, there now my dear." The headmaster soothes gently maneuvering her clenching fingers and cupping them palms up in his larger ones. "You will only cause more damage to them if you upset yourself so."

"But you can see can't you?" Raven's voice pleads as the skin of her fingers throb from the abuse. "It was evil wasn't it? What I did to her? Used kindness and my refusal to play along to her games… I could not do evil normally you see? She would have nabbed me if I had so I-… I-I tried to go about it in a way that she'd never suspect or recognize! It's not… it's not something a hero would do would it? Doing what I did, using kindness to thwart her at every turn? It's still villainy if it's done out of malicious intention… right?"

"Of course! Of course!" He instantly assures, and Raven knows that she's got him. He believes her now. "While not ideal you did admirably given your situation… I suppose that it is a shame that very few might recognize it as such, but yes your highness; you did very well indeed for one so young."

"You don't think that I've lost myself to being a good guy?" Raven looks at her hands a bit miserably, oh dear now they're twitching, she really overdid it back there.

"Far from it. Granted, your particular technique needs to be refined before it can be taught to future generations of villains and a great deal of warnings and restrictions must be put into place to keep unfortunate complications like your situation from arising… but yes, as a young Evil Queen you've done very well." The man nodded to himself as if deciding on something. "I will help you refine and put it down onto paper this technique of yours."

"So that another Evil Snow White will be less likely to happen?" Raven looks up hopefully, if she can give him a project to focus on he just might be easier to handle… "Like a clear-cut honor code of sorts between hero, maiden, and villain. Oh! And an alternative practice for villains who struggle with more traditional concepts of villainy! It's going to need a lot of work and research for it to be near anything proper since I was just winging it most of the time… but it can be possible right? Just because I ended up having to assume the role of a different story doesn't mean that other villains should be forced to flee theirs if they are put in a similar situation!"

"We'll come up with something I'm sure." The headmaster sounded distracted, as if already thinking up possibilities. "You will find time in your busy schedule to detail the methods you used? Your reasoning's?"

"I will." Raven nodded studiously. "Just be sure to keep those documents out of the reach of the Wonderlandians and the Thorn clan. My Queen's people are already cross-analyzing my actions in school and looking to creating a form of political martial art out of it without my input, and the Thorns have been elected as one of the head families of the oversight committee, they have been most accommodating with advising my father, who is the intern head currently, on matters in relation to the committee. I do not know what they would do with that sort of information but I do know that it would not be beneficial to the school."

At that the headmaster seemed to shudder, brow twitching as if some previously unknown phobia has made its presence known.

"I will proceed with utmost caution. You can count on that your highness."

XXX

"He never once asked after you, or Apple, or anybody else who had been hurt by this." Briar murmured lowly sometime later, looking out at the flowering trees with unfocused eyes.

"Even by villain standards, that is pretty cold." Faybelle confirms, looking just as shocked, even a bit queasy, which spoke volumes on its own, and reassured Raven that she hadn't been the only one to be troubled by the headmaster's attitude.

"I'll crucify him." Briar swore fervently.

"At least pretend to give in when I make a show of giving demands." Raven pled, despite agreeing with the other full-heartedly. "He'll be easier to deal with if he behaves!"

Briar's evil grin was impressive. "Oh don't worry Raven, once I start in with him, he'll absolutely love you. I'll bet he'll forever regret treating you so badly in school with how wonderful you'll turn out to be in his eyes."

Raven shuttered. "Please, I'm trying to gain back enough appetite for lunch!"

"You are positively smexy when you are plotting!" Faybelle cooed in adoration.


End file.
